Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids food intake and metabolic syndrome in adolescents 12 to 17 years old: A school-based cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Fatty acids (FAs) of the omega-3 and omega-6 family are considered essential, and adequate intake seems to be associated with lower risk of developing chronic non-communicable diseases. The objective was to evaluate the association of omega-3 and omega-6 FAs dietary intake with the prevalence of MS and its components waist circumference (WC), blood pressure (BP), fasting blood glucose, triglycerides and High Density Lipoprotein - cholesterol (HDL-c) in Brazilian adolescents aged 12-17 years. METHODS: This is a school-based cross-sectional investigation, using data from the Study of Cardiovascular Risks in Adolescents (ERICA), carried out between 2013 and 2014. The following variables were collected and assessed 1) sociodemographic (sex, age, type of school, school location whether urban or rural and region of the country); 2) food consumption was measured through a 24-h Food Recall (24 hR), and a second 24 hR was applied to 7% of the total sample; 3) anthropometrics (weight, height, WC), BP and biochemical (glycemia, triglycerides and HDL-c) were also assessed. Logistic regression analysis was performed according to gender and age group. RESULTS: A total of 36,751 adolescents participated in the study. The intake of omega-3 FAs in the total population was 1.71 g/day and of omega-6 FAs, 13.56 g/day, with an omega-6/omega-3 ratio of 7.931. It was found that higher intake of omega-3 FAs was associated with an 53% lower chance of low HDL-c. For omega-6 FAs, no significant results were found. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicated an association between omega-3 FAs and HDL-c. More studies are needed to elucidate the effects of omega-6 FAs.