Frontiers in Pediatrics (Sep 2023)

Study protocol: Identification and validation of integrative biomarkers of physical activity level and health in children and adolescents (INTEGRActiv)

  • Catalina Picó,
  • Catalina Picó,
  • Catalina Picó,
  • Empar Lurbe,
  • Empar Lurbe,
  • Jaap Keijer,
  • Jan Kopecky,
  • Jean-François Landrier,
  • Julio Álvarez-Pitti,
  • Julio Álvarez-Pitti,
  • Jean Charles Martin,
  • Paula Oliver,
  • Paula Oliver,
  • Paula Oliver,
  • Andreu Palou,
  • Andreu Palou,
  • Andreu Palou,
  • Mariona Palou,
  • Mariona Palou,
  • Mariona Palou,
  • Petr Zouhar,
  • Joan Ribot,
  • Joan Ribot,
  • Joan Ribot,
  • Ana M. Rodríguez,
  • Ana M. Rodríguez,
  • Ana M. Rodríguez,
  • Juana Sánchez,
  • Juana Sánchez,
  • Juana Sánchez,
  • Francisca Serra,
  • Francisca Serra,
  • Francisca Serra,
  • M. Luisa Bonet,
  • M. Luisa Bonet,
  • M. Luisa Bonet

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2023.1250731
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11

Abstract

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BackgroundPhysical activity (PA) provides health benefits across the lifespan and improves many established cardiovascular risk factors that have a significant impact on overall mortality. However, discrepancies between self-reported and device-based measures of PA make it difficult to obtain consistent results regarding PA and its health effects. Moreover, PA may produce different health effects depending on the type, intensity, duration, and frequency of activities and individual factors such as age, sex, body weight, early life conditions/exposures, etc. Appropriate biomarkers relating the degree of PA level with its effects on health, especially in children and adolescents, are required and missing. The main objective of the INTEGRActiv study is to identify novel useful integrative biomarkers of PA and its effects on the body health in children and adolescents, who represent an important target population to address personalized interventions to improve future metabolic health.Methods/designThe study is structured in two phases. First, biomarkers of PA and health will be identified at baseline in a core cohort of 180 volunteers, distributed into two age groups: prepubertal (n = 90), and postpubertal adolescents (n = 90). Each group will include three subgroups (n = 30) with subjects of normal weight, overweight, and obesity, respectively. Identification of new biomarkers will be achieved by combining physical measures (PA and cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, anthropometry) and molecular measures (cardiovascular risk factors, endocrine markers, cytokines and circulating miRNA in plasma, gene expression profile in blood cells, and metabolomics profiling in plasma). In the second phase, an educational intervention and its follow-up will be carried out in a subgroup of these subjects (60 volunteers), as a first validation step of the identified biomarkers.DiscussionThe INTEGRActiv study is expected to provide the definition of PA and health-related biomarkers (PA-health biomarkers) in childhood and adolescence. It will allow us to relate biomarkers to factors such as age, sex, body weight, sleep behavior, dietary factors, and pubertal status and to identify how these factors quantitatively affect the biomarkers’ responses. Taken together, the INTEGRActiv study approach is expected to help monitor the efficacy of interventions aimed to improve the quality of life of children/adolescents through physical activity. Clinical Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier NCT05907785.

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