Fitness, Food, and Biomarkers: Characterizing Body Composition in 19,634 Early Adolescents

A Rodriguez; K Korzeniowska; K Szarejko; H Borowski; M Brzezinski; M Mysliwiec; L Czupryniak; Per-Olof Berggren; M Radziwiłł; P Soszynski

doi:10.3390/nu14071369

Fitness, Food, and Biomarkers: Characterizing Body Composition in 19,634 Early Adolescents

A Rodriguez, K Korzeniowska, K Szarejko, H Borowski, M Brzezinski, M Mysliwiec, L Czupryniak, Per-Olof Berggren, M Radziwiłł, P Soszynski

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Abstract

Adolescent obesity persists as a major concern, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, yet evidence gaps exist regarding the pivotal early adolescent years. Our objective was to provide a comprehensive picture using a holistic approach of measured anthropometry in early adolescence, including body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and reported lifestyle characteristics. We aimed to elucidate potential sex/gender differences throughout and associations to biomarkers of disease risk for obese adolescents. Methods: Trained nurses measured 19,634 early adolescents (12–14-year-olds), we collected parental reports, and, for obese adolescents, fasting blood samples in four major Polish cities using a cross-sectional developmental design. Results: 24.7% boys and 18.6% girls were overweight/obese, and 2886 had BMI ≥ 90th percentile. With increasing age, there was greater risk of obesity among boys (p for trend = 0.001) and a decreasing risk of thinness for girls (p for trend = 0.01). Contrary to debate, we found BMI (continuous) was a useful indicator of measured fat mass (FM). There were 38.6% with CRF in the range of poor/very poor and was accounted for primarily by FM in boys, rather than BMI, and systolic blood pressure in girls. Boys, in comparison to girls, engaged more in sports (t = 127.26, p < 0.0001) and consumed more fast food (t = 188.57, p < 0.0001) and sugar-sweetened beverages (167.46, p < 0.0001). Uric acid, a potential marker for prediabetes, was strongly related to BMI in the obese subsample for both boys and girls. Obese girls showed signs of undernutrition. Conclusion: these findings show that overweight/obesity is by far a larger public health problem than thinness in early adolescence and is characterized differentially by sex/gender. Moreover, poor CRF in this age, which may contribute to life course obesity and disease, highlights the need for integrated and personalized intervention strategies taking sex/gender into account.

Original language	English
Article number	1369
Journal	Nutrients
Volume	14
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14071369
Publication status	Published (in print/issue) - 1 Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by Jochnick Family Foundation to M.R. and by Medicover Foundation to M.R. and P.S.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

adiposity
adolescents
anthropometry
body mass index
fat mass
lifestyle
junk food
obesity
sex differences
PoZdro!
undernutrition
Central and Eastern Europe

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.3390/nu14071369Licence: CC BY

nutrients-14-01369Final published version, 1.18 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Fitness, Food, and Biomarkers: Characterizing Body Composition in 19,634 Early Adolescents",

abstract = "Adolescent obesity persists as a major concern, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, yet evidence gaps exist regarding the pivotal early adolescent years. Our objective was to provide a comprehensive picture using a holistic approach of measured anthropometry in early adolescence, including body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and reported lifestyle characteristics. We aimed to elucidate potential sex/gender differences throughout and associations to biomarkers of disease risk for obese adolescents. Methods: Trained nurses measured 19,634 early adolescents (12–14-year-olds), we collected parental reports, and, for obese adolescents, fasting blood samples in four major Polish cities using a cross-sectional developmental design. Results: 24.7% boys and 18.6% girls were overweight/obese, and 2886 had BMI ≥ 90th percentile. With increasing age, there was greater risk of obesity among boys (p for trend = 0.001) and a decreasing risk of thinness for girls (p for trend = 0.01). Contrary to debate, we found BMI (continuous) was a useful indicator of measured fat mass (FM). There were 38.6% with CRF in the range of poor/very poor and was accounted for primarily by FM in boys, rather than BMI, and systolic blood pressure in girls. Boys, in comparison to girls, engaged more in sports (t = 127.26, p < 0.0001) and consumed more fast food (t = 188.57, p < 0.0001) and sugar-sweetened beverages (167.46, p < 0.0001). Uric acid, a potential marker for prediabetes, was strongly related to BMI in the obese subsample for both boys and girls. Obese girls showed signs of undernutrition. Conclusion: these findings show that overweight/obesity is by far a larger public health problem than thinness in early adolescence and is characterized differentially by sex/gender. Moreover, poor CRF in this age, which may contribute to life course obesity and disease, highlights the need for integrated and personalized intervention strategies taking sex/gender into account.",

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note = "Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by Jochnick Family Foundation to M.R. and by Medicover Foundation to M.R. and P.S. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.",

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AU - Rodriguez, A

AU - Korzeniowska, K

AU - Szarejko, K

AU - Borowski, H

AU - Brzezinski, M

AU - Mysliwiec, M

AU - Czupryniak, L

AU - Berggren, Per-Olof

AU - Radziwiłł, M

AU - Soszynski, P

N1 - Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by Jochnick Family Foundation to M.R. and by Medicover Foundation to M.R. and P.S. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2022/4/1

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N2 - Adolescent obesity persists as a major concern, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, yet evidence gaps exist regarding the pivotal early adolescent years. Our objective was to provide a comprehensive picture using a holistic approach of measured anthropometry in early adolescence, including body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and reported lifestyle characteristics. We aimed to elucidate potential sex/gender differences throughout and associations to biomarkers of disease risk for obese adolescents. Methods: Trained nurses measured 19,634 early adolescents (12–14-year-olds), we collected parental reports, and, for obese adolescents, fasting blood samples in four major Polish cities using a cross-sectional developmental design. Results: 24.7% boys and 18.6% girls were overweight/obese, and 2886 had BMI ≥ 90th percentile. With increasing age, there was greater risk of obesity among boys (p for trend = 0.001) and a decreasing risk of thinness for girls (p for trend = 0.01). Contrary to debate, we found BMI (continuous) was a useful indicator of measured fat mass (FM). There were 38.6% with CRF in the range of poor/very poor and was accounted for primarily by FM in boys, rather than BMI, and systolic blood pressure in girls. Boys, in comparison to girls, engaged more in sports (t = 127.26, p < 0.0001) and consumed more fast food (t = 188.57, p < 0.0001) and sugar-sweetened beverages (167.46, p < 0.0001). Uric acid, a potential marker for prediabetes, was strongly related to BMI in the obese subsample for both boys and girls. Obese girls showed signs of undernutrition. Conclusion: these findings show that overweight/obesity is by far a larger public health problem than thinness in early adolescence and is characterized differentially by sex/gender. Moreover, poor CRF in this age, which may contribute to life course obesity and disease, highlights the need for integrated and personalized intervention strategies taking sex/gender into account.

AB - Adolescent obesity persists as a major concern, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, yet evidence gaps exist regarding the pivotal early adolescent years. Our objective was to provide a comprehensive picture using a holistic approach of measured anthropometry in early adolescence, including body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and reported lifestyle characteristics. We aimed to elucidate potential sex/gender differences throughout and associations to biomarkers of disease risk for obese adolescents. Methods: Trained nurses measured 19,634 early adolescents (12–14-year-olds), we collected parental reports, and, for obese adolescents, fasting blood samples in four major Polish cities using a cross-sectional developmental design. Results: 24.7% boys and 18.6% girls were overweight/obese, and 2886 had BMI ≥ 90th percentile. With increasing age, there was greater risk of obesity among boys (p for trend = 0.001) and a decreasing risk of thinness for girls (p for trend = 0.01). Contrary to debate, we found BMI (continuous) was a useful indicator of measured fat mass (FM). There were 38.6% with CRF in the range of poor/very poor and was accounted for primarily by FM in boys, rather than BMI, and systolic blood pressure in girls. Boys, in comparison to girls, engaged more in sports (t = 127.26, p < 0.0001) and consumed more fast food (t = 188.57, p < 0.0001) and sugar-sweetened beverages (167.46, p < 0.0001). Uric acid, a potential marker for prediabetes, was strongly related to BMI in the obese subsample for both boys and girls. Obese girls showed signs of undernutrition. Conclusion: these findings show that overweight/obesity is by far a larger public health problem than thinness in early adolescence and is characterized differentially by sex/gender. Moreover, poor CRF in this age, which may contribute to life course obesity and disease, highlights the need for integrated and personalized intervention strategies taking sex/gender into account.

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KW - adolescents

KW - anthropometry

KW - body mass index

KW - fat mass

KW - lifestyle

KW - junk food

KW - obesity

KW - sex differences

KW - PoZdro!

KW - undernutrition

KW - Central and Eastern Europe

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DO - 10.3390/nu14071369

M3 - Article

C2 - 35405987

SN - 2072-6643

VL - 14

JO - Nutrients

JF - Nutrients

IS - 7

M1 - 1369

ER -

Fitness, Food, and Biomarkers: Characterizing Body Composition in 19,634 Early Adolescents

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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