Estudio de la relación entre la obesidad abdominal y el riesgo cardiometabólico en población general pediátrica y en población pediátrica con obesidad

Abstract

The waist-to-height ratio is a good indicator of abdominal obesity as well as a good predictor of cardiometabolic risk. Its value is stable in different ethnic, age and gender groups. In adults, the cut-off point of 0.50 is used for the diagnosis of abdominal obesity. However, for the child population, a universal agreement has not been reached. The objective of this thesis has been to compare the diagnostic capacity of the waist-to-height ratio to predict cardiometabolic risk in children from general population with longitudinal follow-up, and in a sample of patients with childhood obesity. Furthermore, it was intended to evaluate whether the reduction in the waist-to-height ratio is associated with an improvement in the cardiometabolic profile. The results obtained from children from general population showed that both the waist-to-height ratio ≥0.50 and ≥0.55 were good predictors of cardiometabolic risk, although at younger ages the use of the 0.55 cut-off point would be more appropriate. In a sample of children with obesity, a waist-to-height ratio of 0.50 was not a good predictor of cardiometabolic risk. Participants with a waist-to-height ratio ≥0.55 and ≥0.60 were associated with a higher cardiometabolic risk, with 0.55 being the cut-off point obtained in the ROC curves. In addition, the change in the waist-to-height ratio in a period of one year was associated with changes in the biochemical variables.