Clustering Health Behaviors in Mexican Adolescents: The HELENA-MEX Study

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The prevalence of excess weight within the adolescent population is rapidly increasing in Mexico, especially in areas with lower socioeconomic status. The present study aimed to identify lifestyle clustered patterns in adolescents and analyze the associations among these clusters and body composition. Method: A final sample of n=259 participants (13 to 17 years old, 58.7% girls), residents in rural and urban areas, were included. Hierarchical and k-means clusters analyses included moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), handgrip strength, screen time, sleep time, and diet. The associations between cluster membership and body composition were analyzed through general linear models (ANCOVA), including sex, age, place of residence, and socioeconomic status as covariates. Results: Three different clusters were identified: Cluster 1, [Unhealthy] (low values in all lifestyle patterns), Cluster 2, [Low Physical Fitness] (low values in CRF and handgrip strength) and Cluster 3, [High Physical Activity and CRF] (highest values in CRF, handgrip strength and MVPA). Clusters 2 and 3 showed high values in screen time and industrialized food consumption. There were no differences in sleep between the 3 Clusters. ANCOVA analysis revealed that participants belonging to Cluster 3 showed significantly lower adiposity and a higher Fat Free Mass compared with the other two clusters (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that a lifestyle characterized by high levels of physical activity and physical fitness and low consumption of industrialized food may be protective against the problem of obesity, which could be helpful to develop interventions to reduce excess weight in Mexican adolescents.

KEYWORDS:

• Industrialized food
• physical activity
• physical fitness
• sedentary behavior

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the North School (CUNORTE) and the School of Health Sciences (CUCS) of the Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico, for making this study possible. In particular, we thank Mr. Gerardo Mejia for facilitating the resources and their staff. The authors would also like to acknowledge all professionals and students who participated in collecting and processing data: Moreno-Baltazar, K.N.; Herrera-Bermúdez, J.; Miramontes-Soto, M.F.; Lozano-Sandoval, M.; Pérez-González, A.; Herrera-Medina, A.L.; Rojas-Cervantes, A.P.; Solano-Soto, M.G.; Santoyo-Riva, L.A.; Ramírez-González, A.; López-Pinedo, S.; Hernández-Herrera, A.L.; Mena-Guerra, J.M.; del Río-Ramírez, M.I.; Muñoz-Arellano, O.A.; Rodríguez-Murillo, D.A.; Zazueta-Guevara, I.; Salmerón-Curiel, P.B.; Hernández-Jiménez, A.; Hernández-Reyes, C.; Mojarro, D.; Orozco-Salgado, D.L.; Godínez-Moreno, L.S.; Páez-Gárate, N.; Corrales-Tamayo, G.I.; Ramos-Gutiérrez M.; Sánchez Hernández M.D.; Contreras-Castro, M.; Miranda-González, C.E.; Núñez-Esqueda, O.; Márquez-Ramos, T.J.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

María Rivera-Ochoa, Barbara Vizmanos-Lamotte, and Amelia Guadalupe-Grau have given substantial contributions to the conception or the design of the manuscript, María Rivera-Ochoa and Barbara Vizmanos-Lamotte to acquisition, and José F. López-Gil, Javier Brazo-Sayavera, and Lisset Pantoja-Arévalo to analysis and interpretation of the data. All authors have participated to drafting the manuscript and revised it critically. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02701367.2023.2195458.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by CONACYT (CVU 22064), from the Program to Strengthen Research and Graduate Studies of the Universidad de Guadalajara and an Universidad Politécnica de Madrid postdoctoral program grant (VJIDOCUPM19). The authors report no involvement in the research by the sponsor that could have influenced the outcome of this work.