Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Manifestation of early age adiposity raises complicated forms of obesity and risks for concomitant diseases development.

Objective: To detect obesogenic risk factors in preschool children screening study.

Material and methods: Of 1008 children from 8 Minsk kindergartens were screened. Anthropometrical parameters, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) were measured. Body mass index (BMI) standardized for age and sex, relative to Belarusian 2009 reference data, was used to define the undernutrition group 0 (BMI <3d percentile), normal weight group 1 (3–90th), overweight group 2 (90–97th) and obesity group 3 (>97th). Due to a small sample size (n=15), the undernutrition group 0 was excluded from the analysis. There were also age and sex distribution. Medical information as well as child’s sports activity, dietary and television-viewing habits were obtained from 410 respondents. Statistical analysis was performed in SPSS 16.0 (P=0.05).

Results: There were age differences between group 1 (n=883) −4.7 (±1.5), 2 (n=61) −5.3 (±1.4) and group 3 (n=49) −5.4 (±1.1) years (P<0.05). BMI and waist circumflex (WC) distinctions were noted: 15.2 (±1.2) kg/m² and 51.1 (±3.5) cm in normal weight children; 18.0 (±0.6) and 56.7 (±3.4) in overweight; 21.3 (±4.4) and 62.2 (±6.0) in obese (P<0.05), respectively. SBP and DBP levels in group 1 were decreased compared to those in groups 2 and 3: 98.7 (±10.3) and 61.4 (±9.8); 107.1 (±10.0) and 66.5 (±8.1); 108.9 (±11.4) and 66.5 (±8.7) mmHg (P<0.05), respectively. Female: male ratio (f: m) was identical (1: 1.1) in all clinical series. There were sexual WC diversities: f −50.6 (±3.4) and 60.1 (±5.4) cm; m −51.5 (±3.6) and 64.3 (±5.9) (P<0.05) in normal and obese children accordingly. Gender mass differences were noticed in group 2: f −23.5 (±4.4) kg and m −25.9(±4.0) (P<0.05).

Overweight and obese rate rises in 4–5, 5–6 and 6–7 year-old children: 13.3 and 30.6; 36.1 and 34.7; 14.8 and 18.9% respectively (P<0.05). Questionnaire survey did not show any sexual distinctions of daily leisure time (LT) during the week in groups 1, 2 and 3 (p >0.05). Boys daily sport activity per week was more intensive than that of girls (P<0.05).

Conclusions: Given that screening study data, daily sport activity rate and duration and 4–6 years old age should be considered to be obesogenic risk factors in preschool children.