TY - JOUR
T1 - Cardiorespiratory fitness attenuates the association between fatness and cardiometabolic risk in Chinese children
AU - Zhang, Ping Ping
AU - Wang, You Xin
AU - Gu, Jia Yin
AU - Xu, Miao
AU - Zhou, Ye
AU - Wang, Hai Jun
AU - Lau, Patrick W.C.
AU - Wang, Hui
AU - Li, Li
N1 - This study received funding from the Major Science and Technology Projects for Health of Zhejiang Province (WKJ-ZJ-2216), the Cyrus Tang Foundation for Young Scholar 2022 (2022-B126) and Ningbo public welfare science and technology project (2022S182).
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2024 Zhang, Wang, Gu, Xu, Zhou, Wang, Lau, Wang and Li.
PY - 2024/5/15
Y1 - 2024/5/15
N2 - Background: Childhood obesity tends to persist into adulthood, predisposing individuals to cardiometabolic risk (CMR). This study aims to investigate the mediating role of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in the associations between multiple fatness indicators and individual CMR markers and clustered CMR-score, and explore sex differences. Methods: We recruited 1,557 children (age: 8 to 10, male/female: 52.7%/47.3%) in September 2022 in Ningbo, China. Physical examinations, overnight fasting blood test, and CRF was evaluated. The CMR-score was calculated by summing age- and sex-specific z scores of four CMR markers, including mean arterial blood pressure, triglycerides, the total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio, and homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance. Generalized linear mixed models were used to identify the associations, mediation analyses were performed to dissect the function of CRF. Results: Partial correlation analyses revealed positive associations between high fatness indicators (including body mass index [BMI], BMI z score, body fat mass index [BFMI] and waist-to-height ratio [WHtR]) and increased CMR markers, whereas high CRF was associated with decreased CMR markers (all P < 0.05). In the mediation analyses, CRF emerged as a partial mediator, attenuating the relationship between four fatness indicators and CMR-score. Specifically, CRF mediated 6.5%, 7.7%, 5.3%, and 12.5% of the association between BMI, BMI z score, BFMI, WHtR and CMR-score (all P < 0.001). And the mediating effects of CRF between WHtR and four individual CMR markers was particularly robust, ranging from 10.4% to 21.1% (all P < 0.05). What’s more, CRF mediates the associations between WHtR and CMR-score more pronounced in girls than boys with a mediation effect size of 17.3% (P < 0.001). Conclusion: In Chinese children, CRF partially mitigates the adverse effects of fatness on CMR, underscoring the significance of enhancing CRF in children.
AB - Background: Childhood obesity tends to persist into adulthood, predisposing individuals to cardiometabolic risk (CMR). This study aims to investigate the mediating role of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in the associations between multiple fatness indicators and individual CMR markers and clustered CMR-score, and explore sex differences. Methods: We recruited 1,557 children (age: 8 to 10, male/female: 52.7%/47.3%) in September 2022 in Ningbo, China. Physical examinations, overnight fasting blood test, and CRF was evaluated. The CMR-score was calculated by summing age- and sex-specific z scores of four CMR markers, including mean arterial blood pressure, triglycerides, the total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio, and homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance. Generalized linear mixed models were used to identify the associations, mediation analyses were performed to dissect the function of CRF. Results: Partial correlation analyses revealed positive associations between high fatness indicators (including body mass index [BMI], BMI z score, body fat mass index [BFMI] and waist-to-height ratio [WHtR]) and increased CMR markers, whereas high CRF was associated with decreased CMR markers (all P < 0.05). In the mediation analyses, CRF emerged as a partial mediator, attenuating the relationship between four fatness indicators and CMR-score. Specifically, CRF mediated 6.5%, 7.7%, 5.3%, and 12.5% of the association between BMI, BMI z score, BFMI, WHtR and CMR-score (all P < 0.001). And the mediating effects of CRF between WHtR and four individual CMR markers was particularly robust, ranging from 10.4% to 21.1% (all P < 0.05). What’s more, CRF mediates the associations between WHtR and CMR-score more pronounced in girls than boys with a mediation effect size of 17.3% (P < 0.001). Conclusion: In Chinese children, CRF partially mitigates the adverse effects of fatness on CMR, underscoring the significance of enhancing CRF in children.
KW - children
KW - fitness
KW - mediator
KW - metabolism
KW - obesity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85194754283&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fendo.2024.1361447
DO - 10.3389/fendo.2024.1361447
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85194754283
SN - 1664-2392
VL - 15
JO - Frontiers in Endocrinology
JF - Frontiers in Endocrinology
M1 - 1361447
ER -
