Predicting cardiovascular risk factors by different body fat patterns in 3850 German children: The PEP family heart study

Abstract

Objectives: Increased central adiposity is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in youths. Since simple and inex-pensive but accurate diagnostic tools are required for general use in clinical practice, we examined body mass index (BMI), waist circumfe-rence (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and skin-fold thickness (SFT) for their utility in predicting CVD risk factors in children. Methods: A representative sample of 3850 children (1981 males) aged, 3-11years, participated in this cross-sectional study. The association of CVD risk factors with BMI > 85 th , WC > 90 th , WHtR > 90 th and SFT > 90 th percentile was examined by multivariate logistic regression models. SPSS 17 was used for statistical analyses; P 90 th percentile had the strongest association with increased LDL-C (OR: 2.0), Non HDL-C (OR: 2.1), LDL-C/HDL-C ratio (OR: 3.3), TG/HDL-C ratio (OR: 2.0) and risk factor clustering (OR: 1.7). Conclusions: Among the children studied, increased (WtHR) was the strongest predictor of traditional CDV risk factors, followed by in-creased skin-fold thickness and BMI.

Keywords

• Anthropometric indices; prediction; cardiovascular risk factors; youth