Cardiometabolic risk assessment: A school-based study in Brazilian adolescent.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Recently, new indices combining routine and low-cost anthropometric and biochemical measurements have emerged. Among them, the visceral adiposity index (VAI) and lipid accumulation product (LAP) are being investigated for the prediction of altered blood pressure (BP) and insulin resistance (IR). Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate whether visceral adiposity index (VAI) and height-corrected lipid accumulation product (HLAP) are predictors of cardiometabolic risk in Brazilian adolescents. METHODS AND RESULTS: Data were obtained from the Cardiovascular Risk in Adolescents (ERICA) study, a cross-sectional, national, multicenter, school-based survey conducted between 2013 and 2014 in Brazil. The sample consisted of 37,815 adolescents aged 12-17 years of both genders attending the last 3 years of elementary or secondary school from public and private schools located in 273 municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. A Poisson regression was performed to verify associations between VAI and HLAP indices and the presence of altered BP and IR according to sex. In addition, receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was applied to compare the predictive ability and determine the cut-off points of the VAI and HLAP indices in identifying cardiometabolic risk obtained by altered BP and IR. The prevalences of altered BP and IR were 24.49 % (95 % confidence interval [CI]: 23.14-25.87) and 24.22 % (95 % CI: 22.70-25.80), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The VAI and HLAP indices are good predictors of cardiometabolic risk in Brazilian adolescents. HLAP showed better performance in identifying insulin resistance in males.

The omission of meals is associated with excess weight in adolescents

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to investigate the association between skipping meals and excess weight in adolescents. This study used a secondary database based on cross-sectional research. Weight and height were measured for the classification of nutritional status and the omission of meals was determined from the 24-hour food record. Statistical analyses were performed on a sample stratified by age from 10 to 13 years and 14 to 19 years. There was a high prevalence of excess weight (overweight and obesity) in the sample and a high frequency of meal omission among adolescents. The omission of lunch and dinner among adolescents between 14 and 19 years and those between 10 to 13 years, respectively, was directly associated with excess weight.

RESUMEN El objetivo de este estudio fue investigar la asociación entre omisión de comidas y condición de exceso de peso en adolescentes. Este es un estudio con datos secundarios de una investigación transversal. El peso y la altura se midieron para clasificar el estado nutricional y la omisión de las comidas se determinó a partir del registro de alimentos de 24 horas. Los análisis estadísticos se realizaron en una muestra estratificada por edad de 10 a 13 años y de 14 a 19 años. Hubo una alta prevalencia de exceso de peso en la muestra y una alta frecuencia de omisión de comidas entre los adolescentes. La omisión del almuerzo y la cena, en los rangos de 14 a 19 años y de 10 a 13 años, respectivamente, se asoció directamente con el exceso de peso.