2013

Background. Fatness and fitness both influence cardiometabolic risk. Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate whether childhood fatness and increasing fatness from childhood to adolescence are associated with cardiometabolic risk during adolescence and how fitness affects this association. Subjects and methods. Of 565 adolescents (283 boys and 282 girls) from the TRacking Adolescents Individual Life Survey (TRAILS) data on anthropometric parameters (age 11 and 16), metabolic parameters and fitness (age 16) were available. BMI and skinfolds were used as measures for fatness. Increasing fatness was calculated by subtracting Z-scores for fatness at age 11 from Z-score fatness at age 16. Cardiometabolic risk was calculated as the average of the standardized means of mean arterial pressure, fasting serum triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol, glucose, and waist circumference. Insulin resistance was calculated by HOMA-IR. Fitness was estimated as maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) during a shuttle run test. Results. Boys showed a higher clustered cardiometabolic risk when compared to girls (P<0.01). Childhood fatness (age 11) and increasing fatness were independently associated with cardiometabolic risk during adolenscence. In boys, high fitness was related to a reduced effect of increasing fatness on clustered cardiometabolic risk. Childhood fatness, increasing fatness and fitness were independently associated with HOMA-IR. Moreover, in boys this association was dependent of fatness. Conclusions .Childhood fatness and increasing fatness are associated with increased cardiometabolic risk and HOMA-IR during adolescence, but a good fitness attenuates this association especially in fat boys.

Objective. To assess the period during infancy and childhood in which growth is most associated with adolescent adiposity and the metabolic syndrome (MS) and whether this differs depending on maternal smoking during pregnancy. Study design. A longitudinal population-based cohort study among 772 girls and 708 boys. Results. Weight gains between ages 2-4 years and ages 4-7 years were most strongly associated with higher body mass index (BMI), sum of skinfold measurements, body fat percentage, and waist circumference at age 16. A one SD increase in weight between ages 2-4 and 4-7 years was associated with increases in outcome measures of +0.82 to +1.47 SDs (all P < .001), and with a less favorable MS score. In children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy, the association of relative weight gain during ages 2-4 years with adolescent BMI was stronger than in children whose mothers did not smoke. For adolescent BMI, the increase was 0.42 SD higher (P = .01). This was similar for the other adiposity measures. Conclusions. Large relative increases in weight from ages 2 to 7 years are associated with adolescent adiposity and MS. This is more pronounced in adolescents whose mothers smoked during pregnancy.

Although it has often been suggested that physical activity and depression are intertwined, only few studies have investigated whether specific aspects of physical activity predict the incidence of major depression in adolescents from the general population. Therefore the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of nature, frequency, duration and intensity of physical activity during early adolescence on the onset of a major depressive episode in early adulthood. In a population sample of adolescents (N = 1396), various aspects of physical activity were assessed at early adolescence (mean age 13.02, SD = 0.61). Major depressive episode onset was assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. A Cox regression model was performed to investigate whether physical activity characteristics and their interactions with gender predicted a major depressive episode onset up until mean age 18.5 (SD = 0.61). The individual characteristics of physical activity (nature, frequency, duration and intensity) or their interactions with gender did not predict a major depressive episode onset (p values >0.05). So far, there is no prospective evidence that physical activity protects against the development of adolescent depressive episodes in either boys or girls.

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We examined the association between: 1) cortisol levels and asthma or asthma development; 2) cortisol levels upon stress and asthma. In addition, we performed a post hoc meta-analysis on results from the literature. Cortisol, cortisol upon stress, asthma (doctor diagnosis of asthma and/or symptoms and/or treatment in the past 12 months) and asthma development (asthma at a specific survey while not having asthma at the previous survey(s)) were assessed in the TRAILS study (n=2230, mean age at survey 1 11 years, survey 2 14 years and survey 3 16 years). Logistic regression models were used to study associations between: 1) cortisol (cortisol awakening response, area under the curve (AUC) with respect to the ground (AUCg) or with respect to the increase (AUCi), and evening cortisol) and asthma or asthma development; 2) cortisol upon stress (AUCg or AUCi) and asthma. The meta-analyses included nine case-control articles on basal cortisol in asthma. No significant association was found between: 1) cortisol and asthma (age 11 years) or asthma development (age 14 or 16 years); 2) cortisol upon stress and asthma (age 16 years). The meta-analysis found lower morning and evening cortisol levels in asthmatics compared to non-asthmatics; however, the summary estimates were not significant. We found no evidence supporting a role for cortisol in asthma and asthma development.