Adolescent Obesity and Its Association with Diet Quality and Cardiovascular Risk Factors

ABSTRACT

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the adolescent obesity and its association with Mediterranean Diet Quality Index (KIDMED) and cardiovascular risk factors in adolescents.

Method: This cross sectional study included 95 adolescents aged between 10 and 18 who visited a Primary Health Service Center in Turkey. Participants’ biochemical parameters, anthropometric measurements and blood pressures were measured. The level of adherence to Mediterranean Diet was evaluated by a clinical questionnaire, the Mediterranean Diet Quality Index for children and adolescents (KIDMED).

Results: Overweight adolescents had significantly higher systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, hemoglobin A1c, C-reactive protein, alanine aminotransferase, than normal-weight adolescents. Overweight/obese subjects also had significantly lower HDL cholesterol than normal-weight subjects. Results indicated that 60.0% of the adolescents had a low quality diet, 34.7% had a mid-quality/needs-improvement diet, and 5.3% had an optimal quality diet. No association was found between diet quality and obesity and cardiovascular risk factors.

Conclusion: Overweight and obese children are strongly associated with multiple cardiovascular risk factors. To avoid health problems arising from obesity, adolescents should refer to global solutions. Mediterranean diet is a good measure against adverse cardiovascular risk factors in adolescence.

KEYWORDS:

• Mediterranean diet
• cardiovascular risk factors
• adolescents
• KIDMED

Ethics committee approval

All studies were conducted according to the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki, and all procedures involving human subjects were approved by the Ethics Committee of Ankara University (Ethics approval code 5/90, 2017).

Informed consent

Prior to the study, a written consent was obtained from the parents of each subject.

Peer-review

Externally peer-reviewed.

Authorship contributions

All authors worked equally.

Declaration of Interest Statement

The authors declared that this study received no financial support.