title: Does the body mass index reflect cardiovascular risk factors in Brazilian children?
abstract: This cross-sectional study aimed to: (i) investigate whether obesity and overweight defined according to body mass index (BMI) are good predictors of body fat excess, abdominal adiposity and hypertension in 769 Brazilian children aged 6-11 years, (ii) assess the relationship between overweight/obesity and cardiovascular risk factors. Overweight and obesity were estimated using cut-off points corresponding to World Health Organization 1 and 2 SD (standard deviation) scores. Based on the results of a multiple logistic regression analysis, overweight and obesity were significantly associated with body fat excess, abdominal adiposity and hypertension. The prevalence of obesity (10.7%), overweight (18.7%), abdominal adiposity (17.6%) and systolic (10.1%) and diastolic hypertension (9.3%) was high in this population of Brazilian children. The cardiovascular risk factors increased significantly according to the BMI SD scores, indicating that in epidemiologic studies, BMI may be a good indicator of risk for cardiovascular diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Health, Federal University of Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil. jnovaes@ufv.br
authors.forename: Juliana Farias
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: de Novaes
authors.forename: Silvia Eloiza
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Priore
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: do Carmo Castro Franceschini
authors.forename: Joel Alves
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Lamounier
mesh_terms: D050153:Abdominal Fat; D050154:Adiposity; D001794:Blood Pressure; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors