Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T16:49:10.026Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fatness is not a factor of fitness: analysis of cardiorespiratory data from healthy children over an 8-year period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2012

Julie Brothers ,
Michael McBride ,
Alex Paridon ,
Xuemei Zhang  and
Stephen Paridon
Julie Brothers*
Affiliation:
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Michael McBride
Affiliation:
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Alex Paridon
Affiliation:
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Xuemei Zhang
Affiliation:
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Westat Biostatistics and Data Management Core, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Stephen Paridon
Affiliation:
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
*
Correspondence to: Dr J. Brothers, MD, Division of Cardiology, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 34th Street and Civic Center Boulevard, 8NW75, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, United States of America. Tel: +1 267 426 2882; Fax: +1 267 426 9800; E-mail: brothersj@email.chop.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate exercise performance and body mass index in healthy children over an 8-year period in order to determine whether cardiorespiratory fitness has decreased relative to changes in body mass index in our patient population.

Method

This study is a retrospective review of anthropometric and cardiorespiratory fitness data from our hospital's Exercise Physiology Laboratory's database on 1201 healthy children (6–18 years) with structurally normal hearts who performed one cycle ergometry test between 1999 and 2006. Subjects were stratified by gender and age. Body mass index was compared between 1999–2002 (Early Group) and 2003–2006 (Late Group) and with national averages. Exercise outcome variables were maximal oxygen consumption, anaerobic threshold, physical working capacity indexed to body weight. Analysis of variance was used to detect differences between groups for each outcome variable.

Results

Body mass index was not significantly different from national data (p-value equals 0.79) or between groups. A negative trend (p-value greater than 0.15 less than 0.20) was observed among most indices of exercise performance between Early and Late Groups. Significantly lower anaerobic threshold was found among males between Early and Late Group (25.7 plus or minus 0.9 versus 23.4 plus or minus 1.6 millilitres per kilogram per minute, p-value less than 0.01), and in physical working capacity among females between Early and Late Groups (2.9 plus or minus 0.1 versus 2.7 plus or minus 0.1, p-value less than 0.05).

Conclusions

Cardiorespiratory fitness in males and working capacity in females declined over time independent of body mass index. This suggests that other measures may need to be evaluated for promotion of overall cardiovascular health.

Keywords

Cardiorespiratory fitnessoverweightobesitypaediatrics
Type
Original Article
Information
Cardiology in the Young , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , February 2013 , pp. 47 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Williams, CL, Hayman, LL, Daniels, SR, et al. Cardiovascular health in childhood: a statement for health professionals from the Committee on Atherosclerosis, Hypertension, and Obesity in the Young (AHOY) of the Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young, American Heart Association. Circulation 2002; 106: 143–160.Google Scholar
2. Ferguson, MA, Gutin, B, Le, N-A, et al. Effects of exercise training and its cessation on components of the insulin resistance syndrome in obese children. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1999; 22: 869–895.Google Scholar
3. Andersen, LB, Harro, M, Sardinha, LB, et al. Physical activity and clustered cardiovascular risk in children: a cross-sectional study (The European Youth Heart Study). Lancet 2006; 368: 299–304.Google Scholar
4. Strong, WB. Physical activity and children. Circulation 1990; 81: 1697–1701.Google Scholar
5. Ogden, CL, Flegal, KM, Carroll, MD, Johnson, CL. Prevalence and trends in overweight among US children and adolescents, 1999–2000. JAMA 2002; 288: 1728–1732.Google Scholar
6. Hedley, A, Ogden, CL, Johnson, CL, Carrol, MD, Curtin, LR, Flegal, KM. Prevalence of overweight and obesity among U.S. children, adolescents, and adults, 1999–2002. JAMA 2004; 291: 2847–2850.Google Scholar
7. Ogden, CL, Carroll, MD, Flegal, KM. High body mass index for age among US children and adolescents, 2003–2006. JAMA 2008; 299: 2401–2405.Google Scholar
8. Huang, YC, Malina, RM. Physical activity and health-related physical fitness in Taiwanese adolescents. J Physiol Anthropol Appl Human Sci 2002; 21: 11–19.Google Scholar
9. Beunen, GP, Malina, RM, Renson, R, Simons, J, Ostyn, M, Lefevre, J. Physical activity and growth, maturation and performance: a longitudinal study. Med Sci Sports Exerc 1992; 24: 576–585.Google Scholar
10. Stratton, G, Canoy, D, Boddy, LM, et al. Cardiorespiratory fitness and body mass index of 9–11-year-old English children: a serial cross-sectional study from 1998 to 2004. Int J Obes 2007; 31: 1172–1178.Google Scholar
11. Reybrouck, T, Mertens, L, Schepers, D, Vinckx, J, Gewillig, M. Assessment of cardiorespiratory exercise function in obese children and adolescents by body mass-independent parameters. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol 1997; 75: 478–483.Google Scholar
12. Cooper, DM, Poage, J, Barstow, TJ, Springer, C. Are obese children truly unfit? Minimizing the confounding effect of body size on the exercise response. J Pediatr 1990; 116: 223–230.Google Scholar
13. Sandercock, G, Voss, C, McConnell, D, Rayner, P. Ten year secular declines in the cardiorespiratory fitness of affluent English children are largely independent of changes in body mass index. Arch Dis Child 2010; 95: 46–47.Google Scholar
14. Nassis, GP, Sidossis, LS. Methods for assessing body composition, cardiovascular and metabolic function in children and adolescents: implications for exercise studies. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care 2006; 9: 560–567.Google Scholar
15. McDowell, MA, Fryar, CD, Hirsch, R, Ogden, CL. Anthropometric reference data for children and adults: U.S. population, 1999–2002. Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics; no. 361. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2005.Google Scholar
16. McDowell, MA, Fryar, CD, Hirsch, R, Ogden, CL. Anthropometric reference data for children and adults: U.S. population, 1999–2002. National Health Statistics Reports; no. 10. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2008.Google Scholar
17. Kuczmarski, RJ, Ogden, CL, Grummer-Strawn, LM, et al. CDC growth charts: United States. Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics, No. 314. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2000.Google Scholar
18. Cooper, DM, Weiler-Ravell, D, Whipp, BJ, Wasserman, K. Aerobic parameters of exercise as a function of body size during growth in children. J Appl Physiol 1984; 56: 628–634.Google Scholar
19. Paridon, SM. Exercise testing. In: Garson A, Bricker JT, Fisher DJ, Neish SR (eds.). The science and practice of pediatric cardiology, 2nd edn. Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, 1998, pp 875–888.Google Scholar
20. Beaver, WL, Wasserman, K, Whipp, BJ. A new method for detecting anaerobic threshold by gas exchange. J Appl Physiol 1986; 60: 2020–2027.Google Scholar
21. Deurenberg, P, Weststrate, JA, Seidell, JC. Body mass index as a measure of body fatness: age and sex specific prediction formulas. Br J Nutr 1994; 71: 823–833.Google Scholar
22. US Department of Health and Human Services. Physical Activity and Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, 1996.Google Scholar
23. Carnethon, MR, Gulai, M, Greenland, P. Prevalence and cardiovascular disease correlates of low cardiorespiratory fitness in adolescents and adults. JAMA 2005; 294: 2981–2988.Google Scholar
24. Farrell, SW, Fitzgeral, SJ, McAuley, P, Barlow, C. Cardiorespiratory fitness, adiposity, and all-cause mortality in women. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2010; 42: 2006–2012.Google Scholar