Cardiorespiratory fitness attenuates the association between fatness and cardiometabolic risk in Chinese children

• DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1361447
• Publication Date: 2024-05-15T04:59:31Z
• Authors: Ping-Ping Zhang; You-Xin Wang; Jia-Yin Gu; Miao Xu; Ye Zhou; Hai-Jun Wang; Patrick W C. Lau; Hui Wang; Li Li
• Keywords: Male; obesity; China; Pediatric Obesity; East Asian People; Cardiometabolic Risk Factors; RC648-665; Diseases of the endocrine glands. Clinical endocrinology; fitness; Body Mass Index; 03 medical and health sciences; Endocrinology; Cross-Sectional Studies; 0302 clinical medicine; children; Cardiorespiratory Fitness; Cardiovascular Diseases; Humans; Female; mediator; Child; metabolism; Adiposity

Background Childhood obesity tends to persist into adulthood, predisposing individuals cardiometabolic risk (CMR). This study aims investigate the mediating role of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in associations between multiple fatness indicators and individual CMR markers clustered CMR-score, explore sex differences. Methods We recruited 1,557 children (age: 8 10, male/female: 52.7%/47.3%) September 2022 Ningbo, China. Physical examinations, overnight fasting blood test, CRF was evaluated. The CMR-score calculated by summing age- sex-specific z scores four markers, including mean arterial pressure, triglycerides, total cholesterol high-density lipoprotein ratio, homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance. Generalized linear mixed models were used identify associations, mediation analyses performed dissect function CRF. Results Partial correlation revealed positive high (including body mass index [BMI], BMI score, fat [BFMI] waist-to-height ratio [WHtR]) increased whereas associated with decreased (all P < 0.05). In analyses, emerged as a partial mediator, attenuating relationship CMR-score. Specifically, mediated 6.5%, 7.7%, 5.3%, 12.5% association BMI, BFMI, WHtR 0.001). And effects particularly robust, ranging from 10.4% 21.1% What’s more, mediates more pronounced girls than boys effect size 17.3% ( Conclusion Chinese children, partially mitigates adverse on CMR, underscoring significance enhancing children.