Atherosclerosis Prevention in Adolescents with Obesity: The Role of Moderate-Vigorous Physical Activity

Antonio Videira-Silva; Luis B Sardinha; Helena Fonseca

doi:10.3390/ijerph192315537

Atherosclerosis Prevention in Adolescents with Obesity: The Role of Moderate-Vigorous Physical Activity

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Nov 23;19(23):15537. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192315537.

Authors

Antonio Videira-Silva^{1

2}, Luis B Sardinha³, Helena Fonseca^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Pediatric University Clinic, Faculty of Medicine, Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-035 Lisbon, Portugal.
² CIDEFES (Centro de Investigação em Desporto, Educação Física, Exercício e Saúde), Universidade Lusófona, 1749-024 Lisbon, Portugal.
³ Exercise and Health Laboratory, CIPER, Faculty of Human Kinetics, Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-004 Lisbon, Portugal.
⁴ Pediatric Obesity Clinic, Department of Pediatrics, Hospital de Santa Maria, 1649-035 Lisbon, Portugal.

Abstract

Carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) is a subclinical marker of atherosclerotic development, which is impaired in adolescents with obesity. This study aimed to analyze the impact of physical activity (PA), cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), body mass index (BMI), and body composition changes on the cIMT of adolescents with obesity. Longitudinal data (6 months) from adolescents aged 12-18 years, with a BMI ≥97th percentile, previously recruited for the non-randomized controlled trial PAC-MAnO (Clinicaltrials.gov-NCT02941770) were analyzed using partial correlations controlling for sex and pubertal status and multiple regressions. A total of 105 adolescents (51.4% girls, 86.7% Caucasian), 14.8 ± 1.8 years old, with a BMI z-score of 3.09 ± 0.74 were included. Total body fat mass (TBFM) (F(1,91) = 23.11, p < 0.001), moderate-vigorous PA (MVPA) (F(1,91) = 7.93, p = 0.0006), and CRF (mL/kg/min) (F(1,90) = 19.18, p < 0.001) predicted cIMT variance with an R² of 0.24, 0.09, and 0.23, respectively. MVPA changes showed a high correlation with CRF variation (r(91) = 0.0661, p < 0.001). This study suggests that although cIMT is impaired in overweight adolescents, improvements in TBFM, MVPA, and CRF are associated with cIMT improvement. Although both energy intake and MVPA may influence TBFM, MVPA plays the most relevant role in cIMT development due to its direct association with CRF.

Keywords: adolescents; cardiorespiratory fitness; carotid intima–media thickness; obesity; overweight; physical activity.

Publication types

Controlled Clinical Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Body Mass Index
Carotid Intima-Media Thickness*
Cross-Sectional Studies
Exercise
Female
Humans
Male
Pediatric Obesity* / epidemiology
Pediatric Obesity* / prevention & control

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT02941770

Grants and funding

AVS was supported by the Fundação Portuguesa para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BD/130193/2017). The organization funding AVS played no role in this research. This research did not receive any specific grants from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.