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Relationship Between Abdominal Adiposity and Exercise Tolerance in Children With Obesity
Jennifer Druce Axley1, Lloyd N Werk
1University of Central Florida (Dr Druce Axley) and Nemours Children's Hospital (Dr Werk), Orlando, Florida.
Purpose:
To determine whether abdominal obesity is associated with lower exercise tolerance in children.
Methods:
Waist-to-height ratios (WHtRs) were determined for 50 children aged 8 to 12 years with body mass index greater than the 95th percentile and 6-minute walk distance (6MWD) conducted.
Results:
Mean 6MWD was found to be 510 (standard deviation = 60) m. Univariate analysis revealed that WHtR was the only significant predictor of 6MWD (P = .01). In modeling using multiple regression analysis, 26% of the variance in 6MWD could be attributed to the participant's age, WHtR, and sex; WHtR was the only significant contributor to 6MWD (P = .001).
Conclusion:
WHtR was the most strongly correlated factor with distance achieved on the 6-minute walk test, a measure of exercise tolerance, and is an important measure to screen for cardiovascular disease risk and to prompt further evaluation of functional exercise capacity.
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