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The study aimed to identify accurate cut-off points for waist circumference (WC), body fat percentage (BF%), body mass index (BMI), fat mass index (FMI), and fat-free mass index (FFMI), and to determine their effective accuracy to predict cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) among Mexican young adults. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1730 Mexican young adults. Adiposity measures and CVRFs were assessed under fasting conditions. The optimal cut-off points were assessed using the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). Age-adjusted odds ratios (OR) were used to assess the associations between anthropometric measurements and CVRFs. The cut-off values found, in females and males, respectively, for high WC (≥72.3 and ≥84.9), high BF% (≥30 and ≥22.6), high BMI (≥23.7 and ≥24.4), high FMI (≥7.1 and ≥5.5), and low FFMI (≤16 and ≤18.9) differ from those set by current guidelines. High BMI in women, and high FMI in men, assessed by the 50th percentile, had the best discriminatory power in detecting CVRFs, especially high triglycerides (OR: 3.07, CI: 2.21–4.27 and OR: 3.05, CI: 2.28–4.08, respectively). Therefore, these results suggest that BMI and FMI measures should be used to improve the screening of CVRFs in Mexican young adults.

It has been proposed that the consumption of foods high in sugar or fat may cause addictive behavior. The aim of this study was to adapt and validate a soft drink addiction scale that can be used in future studies and to strengthen the proposal of food addiction with the hypothesis that people with high consumption of soft drinks have similar characteristics to people who consume abuse drugs. A non-probabilistic convenience sample of 394 Mexican participants answered a soft drinks’ consumption frequency questionnaire, an addiction scale, and a self-efficacy scale for soft drinks’ consumption. Additionally, anthropometric measurements were taken. The addiction scale showed three factors with an adequate reliability (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient = 0.903), as well as construct validity and criterion validity with the self-efficacy scale and total body fat percentage on soft drinks, mainly those with substantial caloric content. Additionally, the results showed a predictive value for soft drink consumption, strengthening its validity. This scale is useful to identify and evaluate the characteristic patterns of a substance addiction. The total reliability indicates that the items as a whole are correlated with each other and that the scale is stable to be used over time. This is the first study that evaluates the addictive characteristics of soft drink consumption through a scale, and it represents an advance in the exploration of the behavioral sciences field and an important tool for the creation of public health policies, mainly in countries with a high consumption of these beverages.

Stress is a condition that has been related to the development of risk behaviors for health such as sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) consumption. The aim of this study was to examine the link between SSBs consumption and perceived stress level in university students. This was an observational, cross-sectional and single-time-point study where the subjects were recruited as a non-probabilistic sample of first-year university students. The students reported their SSBs consumption through a validated questionnaire, as well as their perceived stress level, evaluated through the Cohen scale. Comparisons were made between the means of all variables. Factorial analysis of variance was conducted to explore the effect of the variables’ interaction on the stress level. One-way analysis of variance was performed to assess differences between the sexes. Men consumed more SSBs (6101.17 ± 3772.50 mL/week) compared to women (4294.06 ± 3093.8 mL/week). However, women had higher scores of perceived stress and showed a strong association of stress with the SSBs consumption pattern (r and p-value). This study shows for the first time the association that exists between stress and SSBs consumption and indicates that it is related to sex in the young population.

Background. Exercise induces cytokine-mediated immuno-response dependent of time and intensity of the physical activity. Immune bone remodeling markers may be also modified by exercise. We analyzed the differences between serum levels of CRP, IL-1, IL-10, IL-6, osteopontin (OPN) and procalcitonin in master swimmers with different training levels. Methods. 48 subjects aged 30-70 were divided in two groups. Active Master Swimmers (AMS) had a PAL=1.6 and regularly performed a non-systematic training, 3-4 days/week, 60 min/day for at least 2 y; Elite Master Swimmers (EMS) had a PAL =1.8 with 5 y of experience in systematic mixed (aerobic-anaerobic) swimming competitive training 450 min/week. Body composition, biochemical and immune markers were analyzed. Results. Swimmers in the EMS group had lower biochemical and body composition parameters, compared to AMS group (glucose, 71.1 vs 90.9 mg/dL; triglycerides, 78 vs 123 mg/dL; cholesterol, 150 vs 190 mg/dL; and Fat Mass Index, 5.3 vs 6.7 kg/m2), However, Fat Free Mass Index 19.4 vs 16.4 kg/m2 and Skeletal Muscle Mass Index (SMMI), 9 vs. 7.3 kg/m2 (p<0.05) were higher in EMS compared to AMS group. Pro-inflammatory interleukins and bone remodelling markers such as CRP (12.5 vs 34.9pg/mL), IL-1ß (28.3 vs 52.3 pg/mL), IL-10 (0.8 vs 3.1, pg/mL) and IL-6 (10.2 vs. 16.6 pg/mL), OPN (1.4 vs. 7.8 pg/mL) and procalcitonin (725.6 vs. 8.9 pg/mL) levels were lower in EMS than AMS, respectively (p<0.001). Conclusions. Chronic adaptations due to exercise and systematic training seems to reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines. Levels of bone remodeling parameters such as OPN and procalcitonin could be favorable for bone turnover in response to chronic stimuli of systematic competitive training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]