Health-related quality of life is among global health goals not only in adulthood but also in childhood and adolescence. Being a multi-component construct, health-related quality of life covers various domains, such as physical and psychological wellbeing and social and environmental areas. Bullying might significantly influence those domains especially in adolescence, a period of life when numerous personal and interpersonal transformations are experienced. Therefore, the aim of the current systematic review was to provide a comprehensive overview of the relationship of bullying with the health-related quality of adolescents’ lives. An electronic literature search was performed using PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library, and 3621 full-text articles were identified. After a selection process, 12 studies covering diagnosis, prevention and treatment for each of the three sections “adolescents”, “health related quality of life” and “bullying” were reviewed. An overall reduction in health-related quality of life in regard to bullying appeared from the studies analyzed, as well as a decline in adolescent mental health. Different bullying types were identified as causing harm to various adolescents‘ health-related quality of life domains. These findings may contribute to effective bullying management in schools and/or societal settings, and inform intervention strategies for maintaining the quality of life of adolescents being bullied.

Background: Recently, the leptin/adiponectin (L/A) ratio has been suggested as a novel predictor of cardio-metabolic and other chronic diseases. Aim: To evaluate the ability of leptin (L), adiponectin (A), and the L/A ratio in identifying high risk of insulin resistance IR in adolescents, adjusted by cardiorespiratory fitness, adherence to the Mediterranean diet, and body fat percentage. Subjects and methods: This is a cross-sectional analysis with 529 adolescents aged 12–18 years-old. Blood samples were taken to analyze glucose, insulin, leptin, and adiponectin levels. IR (homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was estimated from fasting serum insulin and glucose). Results: Adiponectin, leptin, and L/A ratio were accurate to predict IR among adolescents. The optimal L/A cut-off value to indicate risk of IR development was >0.35 in boys and >0.97 in girls. Logistic analyses showed that the suggested cut-off points for adiponectin (girls: OR: 2.87 (1.26–6.53); p = 0.012); leptin (boys: OR: 5.23 (1.16–7.14) p = 0.006; girls: OR: 2.99 (1.10–8.09) p = 0.031), and the L/A ratio (boys: OR: 8.38 (2.6–26.8) p < 0.001; girls: OR: 6.1 (2.1–17.0) p < 0.001), were significant predictors of IR, after adjustments for age, pubertal stage, adherence to the Mediterranean diet, cardiorespiratory fitness, and body fat percentage. Conclusion: Leptin and L/A ratio were associated with IR risk, after adjustments for confounders in both sexes and adiponectin in girls. The L/A ratio seems to have a higher diagnostic accuracy to identify IR risk than adiponectin or leptin, in both sexes.

Cardiorespiratory fitness has been substantially associated with health status. However, longitudinal studies on cardiorespiratory fitness and ideal cardiovascular health behavior (ICHB) in adolescents are scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate the longitudinal association between ICHB (at baseline) and cardiorespiratory fitness (at follow-up). This is a 2-year prospective analysis of 445 adolescents (232 girls) aged 12–18 years. The ICHB was developed by the American Heart Association as meeting the ideal health behaviors for a healthy diet, physical activity, smoking status, and body mass index. ANCOVAS adjusted by age, sex, pubertal stage, socioeconomic status, and cardiorespiratory fitness showed that the higher the number of ICHB metrics accumulated at baseline (from 1 to 4), the higher the cardiorespiratory fitness levels over a 2-year period (p = 0.038). In logistic regressions, after adjusting for potential confounders, the odds ratios for having high cardiorespiratory fitness at follow-up was 4.9 (95% CI, 1.2–20.1, p = 0.02) for those who accumulated all four metrics of ICHB, when compared to those with 1 or less metrics of ICHB. In addition, the higher the number of ICHB metrics accumulated, the higher the likelihood of having a high cardiorespiratory fitness level over a 2-year period (p for trend = 0.01). Conclusion : We identified a significant association between ICBH and cardiorespiratory fitness in adolescents. Therefore, improving ICBH in adolescence is likely to benefit the cardiorespiratory fitness. What is Known: • Smoking status, body mass index, physical activity, and diet are associated to cardiorespiratory fitness in adulthood. • Lifestyle behaviors such as physical activity, smoking, body weight, and healthy diet are individually linked with cardiorespiratory fitness and, however, have not been examined jointly, as combined health behaviors. What is New: • Accumulation of cardiovascular health behavior metrics was positively associated with cardiorespiratory fitness at a 2-year follow-up, in adolescents. • Meeting all the four metrics of ideal cardiovascular health behavior seems important for healthy cardiorespiratory fitness during adolescence.

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Background: Recently, leptin/adiponectin (L/A) ratio has been suggested as a novel predictor of cardio-metabolic and other chronic disease.Aim: to evaluate the ability of leptin (L), adiponectin (A) and the L/A ratio in identifying high risk of IR in adolescents adjusted by cardiorespiratory fitness, adherence to the Mediterranean diet and body fat percentage. Subjects and methods: This is a cross-sectional analysis with 529 adolescents aged 12-18 years-old. Blood samples were taken to analyze glucose, insulin, leptin, and adiponectin levels. IR (homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance [HOMA‐IR] was estimated from fasting serum insulin and glucose). Results: Adiponectin, leptin, and L/A ratio were accurate to predict of IR among adolescents. The optimal L/A cut-off value to indicate risk of IR development was >0.35 in boys and >0.97 in girls. Logistic analyses showed that the suggested cut points for adiponectin (girls: OR:2.87 (1.1.26-6.53); p=0.012); leptin (boys: OR:5.23 (1.16-7.14) p = 0.006; girls: OR:2.99 (1.10-8.09) p=0.031) and the L/A ratio (boys: OR:8.38 (2.6-26.8) p<0.001; girls: OR:6.1 (2.1-17.0) p<0.001), were significant predictors of IR, after adjustments for age, pubertal stage, adherence to the Mediterranean diet, cardiorespiratory fitness and body fat percentage. Conclusion: Leptin and L/A ratio were associated with IR risk, after adjustments for confounders in both sexes and adiponectin in girls. L/A ratio seems to have a higher diagnostic accuracy to identify IR risk than adiponectin or leptin, in both sexes.