Physical activity and cardiovascular risk factors in children

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A number of recent systematic reviews have resulted in changes in international recommendations for children's participation in physical activity (PA) for health. The World Health Authority (WHO) has recently released new recommendations. The WHO still recommends 60 min of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), but also emphasises that these minutes should be on top of everyday physical activities. Everyday physical activities total around 30 min of MVPA in the quintile of the least active children, which means that the new recommendations constitute more activity in total compared with earlier recommendations. OBJECTIVE: To summarise evidence justifying new PA recommendation for cardiovascular health in children. METHODS: The results of recent systematic reviews are discussed and supplemented with relevant literature not included in these reviews. PubMed was searched for the years 2006-2011 for additional topics not sufficiently covered by the reviews. RE-SULTS: PA was associated with lower blood pressure and a healthier lipid blood profile in children. The association was stronger when a composite risk factor score was analysed, and the associations between physical fitness and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors were even stronger. Muscle strength and endurance exercise each had an effect on blood lipids and insulin sensitivity even if the effect was smaller for muscle strength than for aerobic exercise. New evidence suggests possible effects of PA on C-reactive protein. CONCLUSION: There is accumulating evidence that PA can have beneficial effects on the risk factors of CVD in children. Public health policy to promote PA in children, especially the most sedentary children, may be a key element to prevent the onset of CVD later in the children's lives. Methods The results of recent systematic reviews are discussed and supplemented with relevant literature not included in these reviews. PubMed was searched for the years 2006-2011 for additional topics not suffi ciently covered by the reviews.Results PA was associated with lower blood pressure and a healthier lipid blood profi le in children. The association was stronger when a composite risk factor score was analysed, and the associations between physical fi tness and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors were even stronger. Muscle strength and endurance exercise each had an effect on blood lipids and insulin sensitivity even if the effect was smaller for muscle strength than for aerobic exercise. New evidence suggests possible effects of PA on C-reactive protein.Conclusion There is accumulating evidence that PA can have benefi cial effects on the risk factors of CVD in children. Public health policy to promote PA in children, especially the most sedentary children, may be a key element to prevent the onset of CVD later in the children's lives.

Determinants of body mass index by gender in the Dikgale Health and Demographic Surveillance System site, South Africa

“…The commonly held position that increased physical activity is associated with a decrease in BMI [40,41] is in contrast with studies reporting positive associations between PA and BMI [15,16,42,43]. There is compelling evidence suggesting that PA has no influence of the risk of becoming overweight or obese [14], however, the value of PA on the general state of health is universally accepted [44,45]. …”

Physical activity patterns of ethnic children from low socio-economic environments within the UK

“…The benefits of engaging in physical activity for weight management (Reichert, Baptista Menezes, Wells, Dumith & Curi Hallal, 2009), physiological and psychological health is well acknowledged (Janssen & LeBlanc, 2010;WHO, 2010). Children who engage in more physical activity have less adiposity and improved cardiovascular risk profiles (Andersen Riddoch, Kriemler & Hills, 2011). However, many children fail to meet the recommended 60 minutes of health enhancing physical activity per day, and even fewer when ethnicity (e.g.…”

Tracking of clustered metabolic syndrome risk factor in Japanese children: 3-year follow-up study

“…Since cross-sectional studies report that physical activity is associated with MetS risk 41) , further study is required to examine these parameters.…”