Sports Participation And Changes In High-density Lipoprotein Among Lean Adolescents: Abcd Growth Study

Abstract

PURPOSE: To analyze the effect of sport participation with different cardiorespiratory fitness demands on changes in high-density lipoprotein (HDL-c) levels of lean adolescents. METHODS: Longitudinal study with 1-year of follow-up (ABCD Growth Study). In all, 189 adolescents (mean age 15.6 ± 2.1) were followed from 2017 to 2018. Only lean adolescents were considered, whose were stratified according to engagement in sports with different cardiorespiratory fitness demands: Control (CT [n= 66]), low cardiorespiratory fitness demand (Low-CRF: gymnastics, baseball, karate, judo and kung-fu [n= 35]) and high cardiorespiratory fitness demand (High-CRF: swimming, tennis, basketball and track & field [n= 59]). HDL-c was assessed in fasting conditions. Absolute changes over time (Δ) and its 95%CI were used in ANCOVA models adjusted by covariates (p-value <0.05). RESULTS: The High-CRF group was the only one with significant improvements for HDL-c (2.57 mg/dL [95%CI: 0.50 to 4.65]), which were significantly higher than CT (-2.87 mg/dL [95%CI: -4.97 to -0.78]) and Low-CRF (-1.47 mg/dL [95%CI: -3.95 to 1.01]) (ANCOVA, p-value= 0.017). CONCLUSIONS: Engagement in sports of high cardiorespiratory fitness demand seems to be beneficial for improvements in HDL-c levels in adolescents, even when childhood obesity is not present.