Abdominal fat distribution independently associated with cardiovascular risk factors in French children
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Waist circumference, a consensual surrogate marker for abdominal fat mass, is associated with cardiovascular risk in children, and may better reflect risk in adulthood than BMI. Few studies have tested whether abdominal fat is associated with cardiovascular risk factors irrespective of the total fat in children. This study was aimed to examine the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in a general population of French children and to assess separately in boys and girls whether these risk factors were associated with fat mass distribution independently of subcutaneous overall adiposity. To this end, a cross-sectional analysis was conducted using baseline data from 235 boys and 217 girls, aged 8 to 17 years, from a 1999 population-based epidemiologic study. Partial correlations between cardiovascular risk factors and anthropometric measures of adiposity were calculated and these correlations were additionally adjusted for the sum of 4 skinfold thicknesses. After excluding obese children, high triglyceride levels were twice more frequent and low HDL-cholesterol levels 20 times more frequent in overweight children as compared with normal-weight children. Among these overweight children, 7.7% had at least 2 risk factors (high blood pressure, high plasma triglycerides or glucose, and low HDL concentration) compared with 0.25% among normal-weight children (P=0.002). In girls, waist circumference was associated with cardiovascular risk factors independently of overall obesity. Based on these results, the authors put forth that an international definition of abdominal obesity be required in order to standardize studies and to make progress in the evaluation of childhood obesity and its impacts.
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