Lipid profile, glucose and insulin are affected differently by physical activity, nutrition education or their combination in Mexican adolescents

Abstract

Intervention programs for overweight/obese adolescents have shown limited results. We analyzed changes in the metabolic profile of 12–14 year old overweight/obese adolescents, with a nutritional education (NE), physical activity (PA) or combined program (CP). Six groups of adolescents from public schools in Tuxtla Gutierrez or Toluca in Mexico, participated during 26 weeks. Total, HDL‐and LDL‐cholesterol, triacylglycerols, glucose and insulin were measured at baseline and weeks 14 and 26. We did multivariate analysis. Highly significant (p<0.001) effects in total cholesterol by time and with study site, intervention or both were observed. HDL‐cholesterol showed a highly significant (p<.001) change by time and time by study site, intervention and study site with gender. LDL‐cholesterol, had a highly significant variation (p<0.001) in time and time by study site and a slightly significant effect (p<0.05) by time and intervention. Triacylglycerols did not show specific change patterns, with significant effects of time (p<0.01) and time by study site and intervention (p<0.001). Glucose decreased at week 14; at week 28 increases were found in females with PA and in both genders with NE from Toluca. The same was found for females with PA or NE from Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Significant effects were observed by time (p<0.001), time by study site (p<0.05) and time by intervention (p<0.01). We observed highly significant (p<0.001) effects on insulin of time by study site and a slightly significant (p<0.05) effect of time by intervention and gender. We found no consistent pattern within the programs. Apparently, any intervention can be beneficial in adolescents.Support or Funding InformationThis project was financed by Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México