Cardiometabolic and Biochemical Indicators in Adolescent Girls According to Nutritional Status and Lifestyle

Adolescence represents an essential stage of life for the prevention of metabolic changes associated with diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases.

The objectives of this study were to identify nutritional status and associate it with metabolic alterations in adolescent girls.

We conducted a cross-sectional study that included adolescent 10-14-year-old girls from public schools. The research was undertaken with 79 girls.

We identified that over half of the girls were sedentary, excessively exposed to screens, physically inactive, and did not practice physical activities in sunlight. The menarche age was significantly lower in girls with overweight and obesity. Most girls skipped breakfast (53.1%) and watched television (84.8%). We observed a high percentage of adolescents with overweight (65.7%), hypovitaminosis D (78.4%) and high levels of triglycerides (69.6%). We did not find an association between hypovitaminosis D and some recorded metabolic parameters (glycemia, glycated hemoglobin, insulin, total cholesterol, HDL-c, LDL-c and triglycerides). However, insulin levels, HOMA-IR, HDL-c, and systolic blood pressure were significantly associated with overweight and obesity, and our results may reflect the characteristics of the study sample and suggest that obese children may already exhibit early signs and risk factors for these chronic diseases during childhood, consistent with national and international data.

The identification of metabolic alterations, nutritional status and lifestyle enables early and directed interventions, which may lead to the present and future cardiometabolic health improvements relative to adolescents.