Cardiorespiratory fitness, fatness, and cardiovascular disease risk factors in children and adolescents from Porto

Abstract

In the present study, we examined different categories of cardiorespiratory fitness and obesity and their relationship with risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) factors in youth. We hypothesized that youngsters with low cardiorespiratory fitness would be at greater risk of CVD risk factors, whether they are obese or not. This study was carried out as a part of a longitudinal research project conducted in the Porto and Braga districts, Portugal, with children and adolescents aged 10–16 years of age. A total of 392 children (173 boys, 219 girls) participated in the study. We used a chi-square test to analyse the relationship between the participants' cardiorespiratory fitness and body weight (non-overweight or overweight/obese). For the purpose of this study, a new variable with four groups was created: non-overweight +unfit (37.4%), non-overweight + fit (35%), overweight/obese + unfit (11%) and overweight/obese + fit (10%). A one-way analysis of variance was used to compare the differences according to fitness and fatness groups. The main finding of this study was that regardless of fatness, participants with higher cardiorespiratory fitness presented with a lower prevalence of CVD risk factors.

Keywords:

• Cardiorespiratory fitness
• fatness
• cardiovascular disease risk factors
• children and adsolescents

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Foundation for Science and Technology awards SFRH/BD/15867/2005 and PTDC/DES-72424-2006.