Cardiometabolic markers among Argentinean normal weight and overweight children with and without central obesity

Abstract

Background: The association between central obesity and cardiometabolic complications justifies exploring its association in normal-weight and overweight/obese (OW/OB) schoolchildren. Objective: To describe cardiometabolic markers in four groups according to BMI/WC categories: 1) normal weight with central OB; 2) normal weight without central OB; 3) OW/OB with central OB; and 4) OW/OB without central OB, in a sample of Argentinean schoolchildren. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 1264 Argentinean schoolchildren (624 F), aged 9.5±2.2 years was performed between November 2013 and 2015. Children’s anthropometric measures, blood pressure (BP), glucose, lipids, and insulin were measured. Children were divided into four groups: 1) normal weight with and with central OB; 2) normal weight without central OB; 3) OW/OB with central OB; and 4) OW/OB without central OB. Results: The prevalence of normal weight children without central OB was 64.3% (796), normal weight with central 5% (66), OW/OB without central OB 11% (137), and OW/OB with central OB 21% (265). Normal weight with central OB had significantly higher triglycerides than normal weight children without central OB (86 vs 70 mg/dL, respectively) and OW/OB children without central OB (81vs 77 mg/dL). Multiple linear regression analyses showed that age, systolic BP, HDL-C, triglycerides, and maternal WC were significantly associated with children’s WC; R2=0.50 as well as children’s BMI; R2=0.37. Conclusion: This study found that children with central OB might be at future higher cardiometabolic risk than those without central OB independently of the presence of OW/OB. However, future longitudinal studies should be performed to confirm these findings.