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Cardiorespiratory fitness and inflammatory profile on cardiometabolic risk in adolescents from the LabMed Physical Activity Study

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Abstract

Purpose

We investigated the combined effect of cardiorespiratory fitness and the clustered score of inflammatory biomarkers (InflaScore) on the cardiometabolic risk score in adolescents.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional analysis with 529 adolescents (267 girls) aged 12–18 years. The shuttle run test was used to assess cardiorespiratory fitness. Continuous scores of clustered inflammatory biomarkers (high sensitivity C-reactive protein, complement factors C3 and C4, fibrinogen and leptin); cardiometabolic risk score (systolic blood pressure, triglycerides, ratio total cholesterol/HDL, HOMA-IR and waist circumference) were computed.

Results

Adolescents with a higher inflammatory profile had the highest cardiometabolic risk score; adolescents with high InflaScore and low fitness had the highest odds of having a high cardiometabolic risk (OR 16.5; 95% CI 7.8–34.5), followed by adolescents with a higher InflaScore but fit (OR 7.5; 95% CI 3.7–8.4), and then by adolescents with a low InflaScore and unfit (OR 3.7; 95% CI 1.6–8.4) when compared to those with low InflaScore and fit, after adjustments for age, sex, pubertal stage, adherence to a Mediterranean dietary pattern and socioeconomic status.

Conclusions

The findings of our study suggest that the combination of high inflammatory state and low cardiorespiratory fitness is synergistically associated with a significantly higher cardiometabolic risk score and thus supports the relevance of early targeted interventions to promote physical activity and preservation as part of primordial prevention.

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Abbreviations

ANCOVA:

Analysis of covariance

BMI:

Body mass index

CVD:

Cardiovascular diseases

HOMA-IR:

Homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance

Hs-CRP:

High sensitivity C-reactive protein

InflaScore:

Clustered score of inflammatory biomarkers

OR:

Odds ratio

WC:

Waist circumference

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by FCT Grant: BD88984/2012; CAPES (Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) (Proc: 9588-13-2). The Research Centre on Physical Activity Health and Leisure (CIAFEL) is supported by UID/DTP/00617/2013 (FCT). R. Santos has a Discovery Early Career Research Award from the Australian Research Council (DE150101921). L. Lopes has an Endeavour Research Fellowship 6072_2017 from the Australian Research Council. The authors gratefully acknowledge the participation of all adolescents and their parents, teachers and schools of the LabMed Physical Activity Study. They also acknowledge the cooperation of volunteer’s subjects and the Research Centre in Physical Activity, Health and Leisure (University of Porto) for the sponsoring the LabMed Physical Activity Study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Centre in Physical Activity, Health and Leisure, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Plácido Costa, 91, 4200-450, Porto, Portugal

    César A. Agostinis-Sobrinho, Carla Moreira, Sandra Abreu, Lopes Luís, José Oliveira-Santos, Jorge Mota & Rute Santos

  2. Early Start Research Institute, Faculty of Social Sciences, School of Education, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia

    Rute Santos

  3. PROFITH “PROmoting FITness and Health Through Physical Activity” Research Group, Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Jonatan R. Ruiz

Authors
  1. César A. Agostinis-Sobrinho
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  2. Jonatan R. Ruiz
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  3. Carla Moreira
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  4. Sandra Abreu
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  5. Lopes Luís
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  6. José Oliveira-Santos
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  7. Jorge Mota
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  8. Rute Santos
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to César A. Agostinis-Sobrinho.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose. The results of the study are presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation.

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Communicated by Fabio Fischetti.

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Agostinis-Sobrinho, C.A., Ruiz, J.R., Moreira, C. et al. Cardiorespiratory fitness and inflammatory profile on cardiometabolic risk in adolescents from the LabMed Physical Activity Study. Eur J Appl Physiol 117, 2271–2279 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-017-3714-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-017-3714-x

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