ESPE Abstracts

Objectives: The etiopathogenetic of childhood obesity is related to genetic and environmental factors: not only caloric intake or physical activity have an important influence, but also circadian rhythms, including healthy sleep.

The objectives of this study were: a) to analyze the different patterns and duration of sleep, eating habits, meal schedules, time dedicated to exercise and screens of obesity children; b) to evaluate its possible relationship with anthropometric variables and body composition.

Material and Methods: Descriptive Study carried out throughout 2018.

Inclusion criteria: 6-18 years-old children with body mass index (BMI)>2 SDS according to reference tables without any other pathology.

The variables collected were: age, sex, race, weight, height, waist, BMI (Z-Score), fat mass by bioimpedance. Sleep patterns (bedtime and getting up, naps), physical activity, feeding (habits, schedule meals, three-day nutritional registry, frequency of consumption), time of screens and lifestyle questionnaires were also collected. We calculated total daily kilocalories intake, their distribution by macronutrients and the average daily intake schedule.

Results: We studied 90 obese patients (61,1% girls and 38,9% boys) with the following characteristics: 12,7±2,9 years old, BMI (Z-Score) of 3,2±1,2 and waist (Z-Score) of 2,4±0,8. Girls had a percentage of fat mass of 40,3±5,9% and boys of 37,5±7,3%.

These patients consumed 1641±304 Kcal per day (20±4,2% proteins, 49±4,3% carbohydrates, 31±6,4% lipids) distributed as: 22,5±23% at 8,8±1,1 am, 5±4,7% at 11,5±0,7 am, 36,5±8,2% at 2,5±0,7 pm, 11±5,9% at 15,8±1pm and 24±6,7% at 7,3±1,4 pm. 46% consumed >10% of day-calories as sugars.

Children slept 8,5±1,2 hours per day on school days and 10,2±1,1 hours on weekends. They spent 2,1±1,6 hours per school day and 4±2,3 on weekend in front of screens. They practiced physical activity 3±2,1 hours per week. 46,5% did not practice any sport out of P.E.

We have to highlight that BMI was positive significantly correlated with a later time and caloric intake at dinner, with the average daily intake schedule and with later time of snack. In addition, a positive correlation with weekend sleeping hours was observed. Conversely, a negative significantly correlation was found with vegetable consumption and kilocalories ingested in breakfast. As expected, most active children had lower BMI than sedentary.

Conclusions: Treatment and prevention of childhood obesity should include not only strategies regarding total caloric intake control and promoting physical activity, but should also consider type of food, meal schedules, caloric distribution along the day and sleep habits.