Cardiometabolic Effects of a 12-Month, COVID-19 Lockdown-Interrupted Lifestyle Education Program for Arab Adolescents

Nasser M Al-Daghri; Kaiser Wani; Malak N K Khattak; Abdullah M Alnaami; Osama E Amer; Naji J Aljohani; Abdulaziz Hameidi; Hanan Alfawaz; Mohammed Alharbi; Shaun Sabico

doi:10.3389/fped.2022.887138

Cardiometabolic Effects of a 12-Month, COVID-19 Lockdown-Interrupted Lifestyle Education Program for Arab Adolescents

Front Pediatr. 2022 Jun 9:10:887138. doi: 10.3389/fped.2022.887138. eCollection 2022.

Affiliations

¹ Chair for Biomarkers of Chronic Diseases, Biochemistry Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
² Obesity Endocrine and Metabolism Center, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
³ Saudi Diabetes Charity, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Food Science and Agriculture, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Diabetes Centres and Units Administration, Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Background: Childhood obesity and pediatric metabolic syndrome (MetS) have steadily increased during the last decade in Saudi Arabia. Intervention programs to prevent cardiometabolic disorders in Arab youth are needed.

Objective: In this multi-school intervention study which was disrupted by COVID-19-imposed lockdowns (September 2019-April 2021), a 12-month lifestyle education program focused on improving the cardiometabolic status of Arab adolescents was investigated.

Methods: A total of 2,677 Saudi students aged 12-18 years were recruited from 60 different secondary and preparatory year schools in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia. The intervention was initially in-person counseling sessions and the subsequent sessions conducted virtually post-pandemic. Baseline anthropometrics and fasting blood samples for glucose, HbA1c, and lipid assessments were collected at baseline and after 12 months (704 participants).

Results: Only 704 out of 2,677 (73.7% dropout) completed the intervention. At baseline, 19.6% of the participants were overweight and 18.1% were obese. A modest but significant decrease in the prevalence of central obesity [11.2 vs. 6.7% (-4.5% change, p = 0.002)], hypertension [22.3 vs. 11.4% (-10.9% change, p < 0.001)], and low-HDL cholesterol [61.6 vs. 23.3% (-38.3% change, p < 0.001)] was noted. Consequently, the prevalence of hypertriglyceridemia increased from 22.7 to 56.3% (+ 33.6%, p < 0.001) overtime. Also, the proportion of subjects who were able to change their status from MetS to non-MetS was significantly more in overweight/obese at baseline than normal weight (16.9 vs. 3.6%, adjusted OR = 3.42, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Interrupted lifestyle education programs secondary to COVID-19-imposed lockdowns still provided modest effects in improving cardiometabolic indices of Arab adolescents. Given the high digital literacy of Arab youth, improving the delivery of virtual lifestyle education programs may prove beneficial.

Keywords: COVID-19 lockdown; adolescents; lifestyle education; metabolic syndrome; school.