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Updated: Jun 7, 2025

Breakfast Habits among Schoolchildren in the City of Uruguaiana, Brazil
Published on: July 29, 2020
Parental obesity, health determinants, and cardiometabolic risk according to sleep duration in schoolchildren:
Caroline Brand1, Vanilson Batista Lemes2, Ana Paula Sehn3
1IRyS Group, Physical Education School, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile.
Background:
the independent association between parental obesity, sleep and lifestyle habits with cardiometabolic risk factors in children and adolescents has been widely explored in the literature. Our study represents a novel approach to comprehensively investigate a complex model encompassing various aspects associated with cardiometabolic risk in youth. Thus, the aim of the present study was to verify the relationship between parental obesity and cardiometabolic risk in children and adolescents, considering the mediator role of health indicators according to sleep time.
Methods:
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 3,973 children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years attending public and private schools in a city located in Southern Brazil. Sleep duration, lifestyle, physical activity, natural food consumption, and parental obesity were evaluated through self-reported questionnaires. Physical fitness was evaluated according to the protocols of Projeto Esporte Brasil. The body fat percentage was evaluated through the measures of tricipital and subscapular folds, and the body mass index was calculated. The clustered metabolic risk score (cMetS) considered the summing z-scores of waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, triglycerides, total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio, and fasting glucose, divided by five. A structural equation model was applied for statistical analysis.
Results:
The relationship between parental obesity and cardiometabolic risk was observed in children and adolescents with adequate sleep, being significant (p < 0.05) mediated by physical activity, natural food, physical fitness, and lifestyle. This was also observed when parental education was included in the inadequate sleep cluster model.
Conclusion:
Present findings underscore the importance of sufficient sleep duration as a critical factor in understanding the complex interplay between parental obesity and cardiometabolic risk in children and adolescents.
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