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Background and aims The long-term relations between excessive adiposity in early childhood and unfavourable cardiometabolic profiles in later ages are not yet completely understood. We aimed to assess the associations between birth weight (BW) and BMI from 6 months to 6 years of age, with biomarkers indicative of low-grade inflammation, insulin resistance and lipid profiles in adolescence. Methods and results Retrospective school-based study with 415 Portuguese adolescents (220 girls), mean age of 14.08 ± 1.6 years old. Anthropometric data from birth to 6 years old was extracted from individual child health book records. Actual weight and height were measured and BMI calculated. Participants were classified at each time point as normal weight or overweight according to WHO reference values. Biomarkers were obtained from venous blood samples. Linear regressions were used to explore the associations between the biomarkers and early life anthropometric indicators. From 2 years onwards, BMI associated positively with the inflammatory score and HOMA-IR in adolescence. Children who were overweight/obese from 2 to 6 years of age presented significantly higher inflammatory score and HOMA-IR later in adolescence. TC/HDL ratio was also positively associated with BMI from the age of 5 years onwards. The associations between BMI and cardiometabolic outcomes remained positive in adolescence, with overweight adolescents presenting a higher inflammatory score, HOMA-IR and TC/HDL than normal weight adolescents. Conclusion A high BMI from an early age was consistently associated with worse inflammatory and lipid profiles and insulin resistance in adolescence. No associations were found between BW and the same studied outcomes.

Background/Objective: Adolescents’ physical fitness levels are an important indicator of their lifestyle and seem to have positive consequences in health-related quality of life (HRQoL).The purpose of this study is to analyse the combined associations of cardiorespiratory fitness and muscular fitness with HRQoL and to assess the differences between HRQoL scores across groups of cardiorespiratory fitness and muscular fitness in Portuguese adolescents. Methods: This is a cross-sectional analysis with 567 Portuguese adolescents aged 12-18 years-old. HRQoL was measured using the Kidscreen-10 questionnaire. Cardiorespiratory fitness was estimated with the 20-m shuttle-run test. Muscular fitness was evaluated using the handgrip and the standing long jump tests and a muscular fitness index was computed by means of standardized measures of both tests. Socioeconomic status was assessed using the Family Affluence Scale. Body composition (body mass and height) was measured according to standard protocols. Accelerometers were used to obtain objective physical activity time. Pubertal stage was assessed using Tanner stages. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was assessed using the KIDMED index. Participants were divided into four groups based on low or high values of both cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness. Regression analysis, mediation analysis and ANCOVA were performed. Results: HRQoL was positively associated with cardiorespiratory fitness (B = 0.112; p

Purpose Then objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of several nontraditional cardiometabolic and inflammatory biomarkers in identifying high cardiometabolic risk in adolescents. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted with 529 Portuguese adolescents (267 girls) aged 14.3 ± 1.7 years. A clustered cardiometabolic risk score (body fat percentage, systolic blood pressure, ratio of total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance, and negative values of cardiorespiratory fitness) was computed. The nontraditional cardiometabolic biomarkers assessed were complement factors (C3 and C4), C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen, leptin, white blood cells (WBCs), albumin, interleukin-6, and a clustered score of inflammatory biomarkers (InflaScore) (C3, C4, CRP, fibrinogen, and leptin). Results Receiver operating characteristic curves analyses showed that C3, C4, CRP, fibrinogen, leptin, and the InflaScore were able to present discriminatory ability in identifying an unfavorable cardiometabolic profile in both girls and boys (p .01 for all). Logistic regression analyses showed that C3, C4, CRP, fibrinogen, leptin, the InflaScore (in both sexes), and WBC (boys) were associated with high cardiometabolic risk, independent of age, pubertal stage, socioeconomic status, or adherence to a Mediterranean diet (p .05 for all). Conclusions C3, C4, CRP, fibrinogen, and leptin were associated with high cardiometabolic risk in both sexes and WBC in boys. In addition, the clustered inflammatory biomarkers seem to have a better diagnostic accuracy in identifying an unfavorable cardiometabolic profile than single biomarkers. Such biomarkers may have utility in motivating health professionals, public health workers, and adolescents' families toward lifestyle changes, improving prevention efforts early in life.

Background and Aim Muscular fitness and an adherence to the Southern European Atlantic Diet (SEADiet) have been inversely associated with cardiometabolic risk. Our aim was to assess the independent and combined associations of muscular fitness and adherence to the SEADiet on cardiometabolic risk in adolescents. Methods and Results A total of 467 Portuguese adolescents (275 girls) participated in this cross-sectional study. Sum of the Z-Scores of Curl-Up and Push-Up tests was used to create a muscular fitness score. Adherence to SEADiet was obtained using a food frequency questionnaire. A cardiometabolic risk score was computed from sum of Z-score of triglycerides, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol/HDL ratio, HOMA-IR and waist circumference. Adolescents with low muscular fitness and low adherence to the SEADiet had the poorest cardiovascular profile F(5, 452) = 5.074 (p and lt; 0.001) and the highest odds of having a high cardiometabolic risk score (OR = 4.5; 95% CI: 2.1–14) when compared to those with High muscular fitness/High adherence to the SEADiet after adjustments for age, sex, pubertal stage, socioeconomic status, total energy intake, low-energy reporter and cardiorespiratory fitness. Conclusions Our findings seem suggest that improving muscular fitness as well as an adherence to the SEADiet could be an important strategy to reduce clustered cardiometabolic risk in youth. © 2017 The Italian Society of Diabetology, the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis, the Italian Society of Human Nutrition, and the Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University