Cardiovascular fitness, physical activity, and metabolic syndrome risk factors among adolescent estonian boys: A longitudinal study

Objectives: The aim was to examine the changes in metabolic syndrome risk factors over a 2-year period, and to investigate the independent influence of baseline physical activity (PA) and cardiovascular fitness (CVF) on these changes.

Methods: 120 Estonian boys (age at baseline 11.9 ± 0.1 years) were grouped according to baseline PA or CVF/kg (VO_2max/kg ) and CVF/_LBM (VO_2max/LBM ). PA was assessed by 7-day accelerometry. Total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), triglycerides (TRG), insulin and glucose were measured and assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and TC/HDL ratio were calculated.

Results: In both CVF/_kg and CVF/_LBM , the low CVF groups had significantly higher values of HOMA-IR (P < 0.009) over time. In TRG and TC/HDL ratio values the only significant difference over time emerged between CVF/_kg groups (P < 0.001). Participants in high metabolic risk CVF/_kg group were 5.9 times more likely to have high HOMA-IR values, 2.9 times more likely to have high triglyceride values, and 3.5 times more likely to have high TC/HDL ratio values (P ≤ 0.045) in the second year follow-up compared to those who were in the low metabolic risk CVF/_kg group. In moderate-to-vigorous PA groups there were no significant differences between HOMA-IR, TRG, and TC/HDL ratio values over time.

Conclusions: The results of the study indicate that CVF has a stronger longitudinal prediction value compared to moderate to vigorous physical activity in terms of metabolic risk factors in adolescent boys. Fitness remained a significant predictor if the influence of body fatness was removed from the analysis. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 28:782-788, 2016. © 2016Wiley Periodicals, Inc.