Abstract
BackgroundThe relevance of physical activity (PA) for combating cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in children has been highlighted, but to date there has been no large-scale study analyzing that association in children aged ≤9 years of age. This study sought to evaluate the associations between objectively-measured PA and clustered CVD risk factors in a large sample of European children, and to provide evidence for gender-specific recommendations of PA.MethodsCross-sectional data from a longitudinal study in 16,224 children aged 2 to 9 were collected. Of these, 3,120 (1,016 between 2 to 6 years, 2,104 between 6 to 9 years) had sufficient data for inclusion in the current analyses. Two different age-specific and gender-specific clustered CVD risk scores associated with PA were determined. First, a CVD risk factor (CRF) continuous score was computed using the following variables: systolic blood pressure (SBP), total triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC)/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) ratio, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), and sum of two skinfolds (score CRFs). Secondly, another CVD risk score was obtained for older children containing the score CRFs + the cardiorespiratory fitness variable (termed score CRFs + fit). Data used in the current analysis were derived from the IDEFICS (‘Identification and prevention of Dietary- and lifestyle-induced health EFfects In Children and infantS’) study.ResultsIn boys <6 years, the odds ratios (OR) for CVD risk were elevated in the least active quintile of PA (OR: 2.58) compared with the most active quintile as well as the second quintile for vigorous PA (OR: 2.91). Compared with the most active quintile, older children in the first, second and third quintiles had OR for CVD risk score CRFs + fit ranging from OR 2.69 to 5.40 in boys, and from OR 2.85 to 7.05 in girls.ConclusionsPA is important to protect against clustering of CVD risk factors in young children, being more consistent in those older than 6 years. Healthcare professionals should recommend around 60 and 85 min/day of moderate-to-vigorous PA, including 20 min/day of vigorous PA.Please see related commentary: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/11/173.
Highlights
The relevance of physical activity (PA) for combating cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in children has been highlighted, but to date there has been no large-scale study analyzing that association in children aged ≤9 years of age
Butte et al studied a sample of 897 Hispanic children (4 to 19 years) in the USA; they observed no association of PA with the presence of CVD risk, but a significant association was found with the number of components included in the concept of metabolic syndrome (from 0 to 5 components such as high waist circumference, lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), higher levels of hypertriglyceridemia, high blood pressure, and fasting glucose) [11]
body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), total cholesterol (TC), TG, vigorous PA and CVD risk score CVD risk factors (CRFs) mean values were similar between genders
Summary
The relevance of physical activity (PA) for combating cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in children has been highlighted, but to date there has been no large-scale study analyzing that association in children aged ≤9 years of age. Most of the studies analyzing the association between PA and CVD risk are based on children from different parts of the European Youth Heart Study, with children of 9 and 15 years of age [9,10,12,13,14,16] All of these studies observed an inverse relationship. To the best of our knowledge, there has not been any study analyzing the association of objectivelymeasured PA in relation to clustered CVD risk factors focusing on children aged from 2 to 9 years, with genderspecific information, in a relatively large sample
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