Ethnic and sex differences in body fat and visceral and subcutaneous adiposity in children and adolescents

Abstract

Body fat and the specific depot where adipose tissue (AT) is stored can contribute to cardiometabolic health risks in children and adolescents. Imaging procedures including magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography allow for the exploration of individual and group differences in pediatric adiposity. This review examines the variation in pediatric total body fat (TBF), visceral AT (VAT) and subcutaneous AT (SAT) due to age, sex, maturational status and ethnicity. TBF, VAT and SAT typically increase as a child ages, though different trends emerge. Girls tend to accumulate more TBF and SAT during and after puberty, depositing fat preferentially in the gynoid and extremity regions. In contrast, pubertal and postpubertal boys tend to deposit more fat in the abdominal region, particularly in the VAT depot. Sexual maturation significantly influences TBF, VAT and SAT. Ethnic differences in TBF are mixed. VAT tends to be higher in white and Hispanic youth, whereas SAT is typically higher in African American youth. Asian youth typically have less gynoid fat but more VAT than whites. Obesity per se may attenuate sex and ethnic differences. Particular health risks are associated with high amounts of TBF, VAT and SAT, including insulin resistance, hepatic steatosis, metabolic syndrome and hypertension. These risks are affected by genetic, biological and lifestyle factors including physical activity, nutrition and stress. Synthesizing evidence is difficult as there is no consistent methodology or definition to estimate and define depot-specific adiposity, and many analyses compare SAT and VAT without controlling for TBF. Future research should include longitudinal examinations of adiposity changes over time in representative samples of youth to make generalizations to the entire pediatric population and examine variation in organ-specific body fat.

La circunferencia de la cintura en adolescentes del Perú

“…Hay estudios que comunican resultados variados (30) . Lee mostró que los varones tienen más grasa visceral que la mujeres, en un estudio que hizo con resonancia magnética, y que esta diferencia se manifiesta en el incremento de la CC (31) .…”

Abdominal Fat and African-Americans: Incidence and Relationship to Disease

“…This is the case in both the overweight and obese states [18], as well as after reaching a normal weight after weight loss [21]. AA children have also been shown to distribute less fat in the viscera compared to other races [22,23]. Since AAs appear to have less visceral fat than other races and ethnicities, even when matched for BMI, it may be expected that cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk would also be lower in AAs.…”

Beyond Nutrition Is There Any Role for Physical Activity in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Therapy?

“…EPIDEMIOLOGY AND CLINICAL MANAGEMENT OF VISCERAL OBESITY risks in children and adolescents [65]. Imaging procedures including magnetic resonance imaging and CT enable the exploration of individual and group differences in pediatric adiposity [65]. Obtaining evidence is difficult because there is no consistent methodology or definition by which to estimate and define depot-specific adiposity, and many analyses have compared SAT and VAT without controlling for total body fat [65].…”

“…EPIDEMIOLOGY AND CLINICAL MANAGEMENT OF VISCERAL OBESITY risks in children and adolescents [65]. Imaging procedures including magnetic resonance imaging and CT enable the exploration of individual and group differences in pediatric adiposity [65].…”

“…Imaging procedures including magnetic resonance imaging and CT enable the exploration of individual and group differences in pediatric adiposity [65]. Obtaining evidence is difficult because there is no consistent methodology or definition by which to estimate and define depot-specific adiposity, and many analyses have compared SAT and VAT without controlling for total body fat [65]. Future research should include longitudinal examinations of adiposity changes over time in representative samples of young people to enable generalizations to be made regarding the entire pediatric population and to examine variations in organ-specific body fat [65].…”