USS academic participated in pioneering study on childhood obesity and its impact on bone health

The research addresses how obesity has a negative influence on bone health during childhood and adolescence.

One of the pandemics of the 21st century is childhood obesity. Therefore, research aims to determine how the excess adipose tissue has a negative influence on bone health during the childhood and adolescence, generating diseases such as osteoporosis.

Within this line of research, a study led by the academic from the Catholic University of Valparaíso, Carlos Cristi: The inverse relationship between fatness and bone mineral content is mediated by the adolescent appendicular skeletal muscle mass index: The Cogni-Action Project”, in which academics from different universities participated, among them, Felipe Araya research professor of the career of kinesiology of the San Sebastian University.

In the years 2017 and 2021 Data was collected and different evaluations were carried out on more than 1,200 children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 14 years of educational establishments in the Valparaíso Region. They were considered demographic variables, socioeconomic vulnerability, age, gender, weight, height, muscle mass index (BMI) and others anthropometric aspects such as bone mineral content, neck circumference, visceral fat and muscle mass through an advanced anthropometry system.

“The evidence has shown is that when you have more adipose tissue, a person’s bone health is lower. Namely, the more fatty tissue, the lower the bone density. That had been studied in adults, but had not been addressed in the case of adolescents and children. In this relationship or process, an inflammatory molecule called adipokine that affects bone content and that in the future may be a predictor of osteoporosis”, explains the academic Felipe Araya.

However, the research investigated the role of another variable, which is the Appendiceal Muscle Massthat is, the muscles of the extremities “to determine if in any way it can influence to modify or be a mediating or mitigating factor in this relationship between greater adipose tissue (obesity) and lower bone density in children and adolescents”.

conclusions

One of the main conclusions in this regard is that appendicular muscle mass can decrease this effect in a 29% in the case of boys and 32.8% in girls.

In that sense, Felipe Araya points out that from this research other ideas can continue to be developed, such as implanting new exercise or training routines in schools.

“The importance of appendicular muscle mass as a mediating factor in the improvement of bone health was made clear. On the other hand, some lines of research may remain for its development, such as the possibility of long-term follow-up to see if there are other changes in the future and evaluate how this attenuating factor acts at 18 or 30 years of age in these same children”he concludes.

See research here