ESPE Abstracts

Introduction:The incidence of obesity increases unstoppably in all populations and at all ages, and with it, the associated metabolic morbidity and mortality. The promotion of physical activity and a healthy diet are the fundamental elements to alleviate this situation. The objective of this study is to determine the relationship of physical activity and eating patterns with body composition, the degree of adiposity and certain metabolic risk factors.

Material and Methods: An observational epidemiological study with a cross-sectional design in 813 patients between 6 and 14 years of age who attend child nutrition and / or endocrinology clinics in 4 Spanish hospitals at the third level, where physical activity and diet patterns are evaluated through questionnaires. compare with body composition and adiposity results through anthropometry and DEXA. The statistical analysis is done with the SPSS package.

Results: Moderate and vigorous physical activity presented negative correlation with the percentage of total fat body composition we observed a negative correlation between moderate activity and the (P<0.0001), and vigorous activity and percentage of total fat (P=0.003). As far as the percentage of lean mass is concerned, it increases significantly with the practice of physical activity (P<0.0001). Overwheight children are those who have a better compliance with the recommendations of the disadvised foods (P=0.001). Patients are grouped into three clusters according to four variables for the joint study of physical activity and diet: recommended foods, disadvised foods, moderate and intense physical activity. A significantly higher percentage of normal weight belong to the cluster 3 (higher level of physical activity and compliance with recommended food recommendations but not those disadvised foods), compared to children with overweight and obesity (P=0.038). We can also observe that in cluster 2 (better compliance with nutritional recommendations and physical activity level below the recommendations), it is children with normal weight who are in a lower percentage than those who are overweight and obese (P=0.038). The children in cluster 3 presented significantly higher levels of HDL cholesterol (P=0.028) and greater total lean mass and lower percentage of total fat mass (P<0.0001). Insulin and HOMA-IR index are also lower in cluster 3, although they do not show significant differences.

Conclusions: The combination of frequent physical activity and healthy diet is related to a lower degree of adiposity and an increase in HDLc levels, which causes a decrease in metabolic risk.