VISCERAL ADIPOSITY INDEX AS A PREDICTOR OF CARDIOMETABOLIC RISK IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Introduction: The cardiometabolic risk is associated with several factors, among which nutritional status plays a prominent role. Objectives: This study verified the influence of nutritional status on the Visceral Adiposity Index (VAI) and its components in children and adolescents. Methods: Descriptive, associative, cross-sectional study performed with a sample of 290 individuals from 10 to 18 years of age of both sexes. We assessed height, body mass, BMI, HDL-c, TG, and VAI. The following tests were used: Shapiro-Wilk, independent Student t test, Mann-Whitney U-test, ANOVA One-Way, Kruskal-Wallis, Bonferroni post hoc test, Pearson Correlation and odds ratio. The significance level was established at p<0.05. Results: The tests showed significant differences between the sexes for age, HDL-c, and VAI. Concerning the variables HDL-c, TG and VAI, significant differences were observed among the eutrophic adolescents and the other classifications of nutritional status. There was also a worsening of the variables used to calculate VAI for adolescents with altered nutritional status (non-eutrophic), indicating a higher cardiometabolic risk associated with overweight There was a strong correlation between VAI and TG (0.865) and moderate negative correlation between VAI and HDL-c (-0.405). After the odds ratio calculation, it was found that participants with overweight and altered WC, respectively presented 2.3 and 1.5 times more chance of cardiometabolic risk (altered VAI). Conclusions: The nutritional status is capable of influence the variables of cardiometabolic VAI, WC, TG, and HDL-c in children and adolescents. In this population, regardless of sex, as the BMI increases, there is a progression of metabolic changes. In addition, VAI index showed a significant correlation with TG, HDL-c, BMI, and WC of the children and adolescents in the study, which could be seen as an alternative to predict metabolic risk.