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Updated: Oct 3, 2025
Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
Body composition, physical fitness and cardiovascular risk factors in 9-year-old children
Pontus Henriksson1, Johanna Sandborg2,3, Maria Henström3
1Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, 58183, Sweden. pontus.henriksson@liu.se.
Insights
Maintaining healthy fat mass in children is crucial for cardiovascular health. Higher body fat is linked to increased blood pressure and insulin resistance, independent of fitness levels. This highlights the importance of weight management for preventing heart disease risk factors in youth.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Cardiovascular Disease Research
- Human Physiology
Background:
- Understanding the interplay between body composition, physical fitness, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in children is essential for early intervention.
- Childhood obesity is a growing concern, necessitating research into its impact on long-term cardiovascular health.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the independent associations of body composition and physical fitness with CVD risk factors in 9-year-old Swedish children.
- To determine whether associations persist after adjusting for covariates and other health metrics.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study involving 411 Swedish children aged 9.
- Linear regression analyses were used to assess associations between body mass index (BMI), fat mass, fat-free mass, cardiorespiratory fitness, motor fitness, and CVD risk factors (blood pressure, HOMA-IR, MetS score).
- Analyses included unadjusted models and models adjusted for covariates and body composition.
Main Results:
- Higher BMI, % fat mass, and fat mass index were independently associated with increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure, HOMA-IR, and MetS score.
- These associations remained significant even after adjusting for covariates, fat-free mass, and physical fitness.
- Fat-free mass index showed weak associations with CVD risk factors, which were not statistically significant after adjustments.
- Cardiorespiratory and motor fitness were associated with lower HOMA-IR and MetS score in unadjusted models, but these associations disappeared after adjusting for body composition.
Conclusions:
- Childhood cardiovascular health promotion should prioritize maintaining a healthy body fat percentage.
- Excess fat mass is a significant independent predictor of CVD risk factors in children.
- Physical fitness alone does not appear to mitigate the negative impact of high body fat on cardiovascular health markers.
Abstract:
The independent associations of body composition and physical fitness components with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in childhood are not fully understood. Thus, this cross-sectional study examined the independent associations of body composition and physical fitness with CVD risk factors in Swedish 9-year-old children (n = 411). Unadjusted linear regression analyses showed that body mass index (BMI), % fat mass and fat mass index were all positively associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure, Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) and Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) score (all β ≥ 0.229, P ≤ 0.001). These associations were virtually unaffected by adjustments for basic covariates (child's age and sex, maternal educational level and maternal BMI), fat-free mass and physical fitness. Fat-free mass index had generally weak associations with CVD risk factors and no associations were statistically significant after adjustments (all P > 0.27). Greater cardiorespiratory fitness and motor fitness were associated with lower HOMA-IR and MetS score in unadjusted models (all β ≤ - 0.158, P ≤ 0.039) but not after adjustments for basic covariates and body composition. These findings indicate that cardiovascular health promotion in childhood may focus on the maintenance of a healthy fat mass.
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