[Comparison of dietary and physical activity patterns among obese children and adolescents with or without metabolic syndrome]

Considering the appearance of chronic diseases in adulthood and the emergence of their underlying causes such as metabolic syndrome since early years of life, recognition of effective factors and taking interventional measures will lead to a more short term and long term beneficial effects. The aim of this study was to compare the dietary and physical activity patterns among obese children and adolescents with or without metabolic syndrome. This case-control study was conducted in 2007 in Isfahan. 825 overweight or obese children and adolescents [body mass index equal to or greater than 85th percentile] aged between 6-17 years were assigned into two groups: with or without metabolic syndrome and the dietary and physical activity patterns of the groups were compared with each other. Data were introduced into SPSS software and analyzed by means of Chi-Square, regression and t-tests. Comparison of the mean frequency of food consumption and physical activities in both groups indicated that increased consumption of meat, egg, dairy products, nuts, vegetables and fruits had a significant relationship with decreased incidence of metabolic syndrome. The physical activity level of those with metabolic syndrome was lower than that of those without this syndrome. However this difference was not significant. Considering the increasing incidence of obesity and metabolic syndrome in children and adolescents, and its relation with the dietary habits and physical activity established from early life, it is necessary to pay more attention to the lifestyle of children and adolescents in order to prevent emergence of chronic diseases in the future

[Predicting risk factors of cardiovascular disease according to anthropometric measures in children and adolescents]

Regarding the higher risk of abdominal obesity versus generalized obesity, nowadays the combined measurement of body mass index [BMI] and waist circumference [WC] is used for prediction of obesity health hazards among adults however; such information is limited among children and adolescents. In this study, the individualized and combined influence of BMI and WC on risk factors of cardiovascular disease [CVD] in overweight children and adolescents was assessed. This study included 3432 overweight/obese children and adolescents referred to the Pediatric Preventive Cardiology Department [Isfahan Cardiovascular Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences] in whom six CVD risk factors were measured and registered. At the first step of analysis, BMI and WC were considered as continuous variables in predicting CVD risk factors. At the second step, the participants were initially categorized into overweight and obese, and later, the risk factors in each group were compared among those with WC lower and or higher than 75th percentile. When the BMI and WC in a regression model for predicting CVD risk factors were used, the increase in variance was found to have insignificant difference compared to those obtained for BMI and WC, individually. When the aforementioned categories were applied, WC was shown to be more informative about risk factors than that of BMI alone. The findings of present study emphasize on the role of abdominal obesity in increasing the risk of chronic diseases, notably CVD in children and adolescents hence, similar to adults, measurement of WC as well as BMI should be routinely considered among children and adolescents