Anthropometric markers of abdominal adiposity and its relation to dyslipidemia and insulin resistance among overweight/obese schoolchildren and adolescents

Abstract

Objective: to assess the relationship between anthropometric indicators and laboratorial markers of cardiovascular risk in overweight/obese children and adolescents, in order to verify whether any anthropometric indicator has a better potential for use in screening cardiovascular risk in the population. Method: retrospective cross-sectional study enrolling 237 individuals aged 7 to 18 years. Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist circumference/height index (WC/H), glucose, HOMA-IR, total cholesterol (TC), LDL, HDL, triglycerides and TC/HDL and LDL/HDL indexes were obtained. Associations between anthropometric and laboratory markers were tested in contingency tables using the chi-square test. Correlations were tested by Spearman's correlation. Results: higher WC (Freedman cutoffs) was associated with lower levels of HDL and higher score in the TC/HDL and LDL/HDL indexes, but, using +2 z-scores as the cutoff, there were associations with low HDL and higher HOMA-IR. WC/H indicator (0.5 cutoff) was not associated with any of the outcomes, but, using +2 z-scores, an association was found with HOMA-IR. Z-scores of WC, WC/H and BMI showed positive correlation with HOMA-IR, TC/HDL and HOMA-IR, respectively. Negative correlations were found between WC and WC/H z-scores with HDL. WC and WC/H z-score were related to changes in HDL and HOMA-IR. Conclusions: there seems to be an advantage in using WC alone as a possible predictor of dyslipidemia and insulin resistance in children and adolescents. It is not possible to state that WC, WC/H or BMI measurements differ in their abilities to identify Brazilian children and adolescents with risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.