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Visceral abdominal fat is correlated with whole-body fat and physical activity among 8-y-old children at risk of obesity^1,2,3

¹ From the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (BES, KvS, LFD, and KJO) and University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (BES, RJS, and LFD)

Background: Abdominal fat is more related to health risk than is whole-body fat. Determining the factors related to children's visceral fat could result in interventions to improve child health.

Objective: Given the effects of physical activity on adults' visceral fat, it was hypothesized that, after accounting for whole-body fat, physical activity would be inversely related to children's visceral (VAT), but not to subcutaneous (SAT), abdominal adipose tissue.

Design: In this cross-sectional observational study conducted in forty-two 8-y-old children (21 boys, 21 girls) at risk of obesity [>75th body mass index (BMI) percentile, with at least one overweight parent], familial factors (eg, maternal BMI), historic weight-related factors (eg, birth weight), and the children's current physical activity (self-reported and measured with accelerometry) and diet were examined as potential correlates of the children's whole-body composition (measured with BMI and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) and abdominal fat distribution (measured by magnetic resonance imaging).

Results: Accelerometer-measured physical activity was related to whole-body fat (r = –0.32, P < 0.10), SAT (r = –0.29, P < 0.10), and VAT (r = –0.43, P < 0.05). In regression models, whole-body fat was positively associated with and the only significant correlate of SAT. Whole-body fat was positively related and accelerometer-measured physical activity was negatively and independently related to the children's VAT.

Conclusions: Both SAT and VAT in 8-y-old children at risk of obesity are most closely associated with whole-body fat. However, after control for whole-body fat, greater physical activity is only associated with lower VAT, not SAT, in these children.

Key Words: Visceral fat • physical activity • children • obesity • abdominal fat

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