The Role of Body Adiposity Index in Determining Body Fat Percentage in Colombian Adults with Overweight or Obesity

The aim of this study is to investigate the accuracy of body adiposity index (BAI) as a convenient tool for assessing body fat percentage (BF%) in a sample of adults with overweight/obesity using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). The study population was composed of 96 volunteers (60% female, mean age 40.6 ± 7.5 years old). Anthropometric characteristics (body mass index, height, waist-to-height ratio, hip and waist circumference), socioeconomic status, and diet were assessed, and BF% was measured by BIA-BF% and by BAI-BF%. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the correlation between BAI-BF% and BF% assessed by BIA-BF%, while controlling for potential confounders. The concordance between the BF% measured by both methods was obtained with a paired sample t-test, Lin’s concordance correlation coefficient, and Bland-Altman plot analysis. Overall, the correlation between BF% obtained by BIA-BF% and estimated by BAI-BF% was r = 0.885, p < 0.001, after adjusting for potential confounders (age, socioeconomic status, and diet). Lin’s concordance correlation coefficient was moderate in both sexes. In the men, the paired t-test showed a significant mean difference in BF% between the methods (−5.6 (95% CI −6.4 to −4.8); p < 0.001). In the women, these differences were (−3.6 (95% CI −4.7 to −2.5); p < 0.001). Overall, the bias of the BAI-BF% was −4.8 ± 3.2 BF%; p < 0.001), indicating that the BAI-BF% method significantly underestimated the BF% in comparison with the reference method. In adults with overweight/obesity, the BAI presents low agreement with BF% measured by BIA-BF%; therefore, we conclude that BIA-BF% is not accurate in either sex when body fat percentage levels are low or high. Further studies are necessary to confirm our findings in different ethnic groups.This study forms part of the project entitled “High Intensity Interval- vs. Resistance or Combined- Training to Improve Cardiometabolic Health in Overweight Adults: Cardiometabolic HIIT-RT Study ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NTC02715063”, funded by the Centre for Studies on Measurement of Physical Activity, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universidad del Rosario (Code N° FIUR DN-BG001)

Reflexiones acerca de la educación y la investigación en los profesionales de la rehabilitación de Colombia

En este artículo se exponen algunas reflexiones y se plantean desafíos en el modelo de enseñanza en profesiones de la salud cuyo quehacer se relaciona con la rehabilitación. Tomando como premisas la educación y la investigación en la rehabilitación, se discuten lineamientos que regulan la calidad de la educación, las necesidades regionales de estos profesionales, los requisitos mínimos de calidad para garantizar la excelencia profesional, los desarrollos que en el tema se han obtenido en el país y las estrategias que pueden conllevar a avances. Esto considerando que son aspectos que ameritan una profunda discusión por parte del Ministerio de la Protección Social, el Ministerio de Educación Nacional, las Facultades y Programas de Rehabilitación y las Asociaciones Científicas con el fin de alcanzar una excelencia en la formación de los futuros rehabilitadores

Reflexiones acerca de la educación y la investigación en los profesionales de la rehabilitación de Colombia

En este artículo se exponen algunas reflexiones y se plantean desafíos en el modelo de enseñanza en profesiones de la salud cuyo quehacer se relaciona con la rehabilitación. Tomando como premisas la educación y la investigación en la rehabilitación, se discuten lineamientos que regulan la calidad de la educación, las necesidades regionales de estos profesionales, los requisitos mínimos de calidad para garantizar la excelencia profesional, los desarrollos que en el tema se han obtenido en el país y las estrategias que pueden conllevar a avances. Esto considerando que son aspectos que ameritan una profunda discusión por parte del Ministerio de la Protección Social, el Ministerio de Educación Nacional, las Facultades y Programas de Rehabilitación y las Asociaciones Científicas con el fin de alcanzar una excelencia en la formación de los futuros rehabilitadores

Reflexiones acerca de la educación y la investigación en los profesionales de la rehabilitación de Colombia

En este artículo se exponen algunas reflexiones y se plantean desafíos en el modelo de enseñanza en profesiones de la salud cuyo quehacer se relaciona con la rehabilitación. Tomando como premisas la educación y la investigación en la rehabilitación, se discuten lineamientos que regulan la calidad de la educación, las necesidades regionales de estos profesionales, los requisitos mínimos de calidad para garantizar la excelencia profesional, los desarrollos que en el tema se han obtenido en el país y las estrategias que pueden conllevar a avances. Esto considerando que son aspectos que ameritan una profunda discusión por parte del Ministerio de la Protección Social, el Ministerio de Educación Nacional, las Facultades y Programas de Rehabilitación y las Asociaciones Científicas con el fin de alcanzar una excelencia en la formación de los futuros rehabilitadores

Reflexiones acerca de la educación y la investigación en los profesionales de la rehabilitación de Colombia

En este artículo se exponen algunas reflexiones y se plantean desafíos en el modelo de enseñanza en profesiones de la salud cuyo quehacer se relaciona con la rehabilitación. Tomando como premisas la educación y la investigación en la rehabilitación, se discuten lineamientos que regulan la calidad de la educación, las necesidades regionales de estos profesionales, los requisitos mínimos de calidad para garantizar la excelencia profesional, los desarrollos que en el tema se han obtenido en el país y las estrategias que pueden conllevar a avances. Esto considerando que son aspectos que ameritan una profunda discusión por parte del Ministerio de la Protección Social, el Ministerio de Educación Nacional, las Facultades y Programas de Rehabilitación y las Asociaciones Científicas con el fin de alcanzar una excelencia en la formación de los futuros rehabilitadores

Fat-to-Muscle Ratio: A New Anthropometric Indicator as a Screening Tool for Metabolic Syndrome in Young Colombian People

Fat-to-muscle ratio has been proposed as an alternative approach for assessing body fat. The objective of this study was to explore fat-to-muscle ratio thresholds in metabolic syndrome (MetS) diagnosis; it was hypothesised that the fat-to-muscle ratio is a good predictive indicator of MetS in a large population of young Colombian adults. For this purpose, a cross-sectional study was conducted on 1416 subjects (66.6% female), aged from 18.1 to 25.1. As part of the study, measurements of the subjects’ anthropometric indicators, serum lipid indices, blood pressure, and fasting plasma glucose were taken. Body composition was measured through bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). A new variable (ratio of fat mass to muscle mass, in kg) was calculated. Following the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) definition, MetS includes three or more metabolic abnormalities. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and logistic regression determined the discriminatory ability of the fat-to-muscle ratio to predict MetS. According to the IDF, the best fat-to-muscle ratio cut-off point for detecting MetS in men was 0.225 kg, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.83, sensitivity of 80%, and specificity of 70%. For women, the fat-to-muscle ratio cut-off point was 0.495 kg, the AUC was 0.88, and the sensitivity and specificity were 82% and 80%, respectively. In conclusion, our results showed that the fat-to-muscle ratio cut-off points from ROC analyses demonstrate good discriminatory power for detecting MetS in young Colombian adults.This research was funded by the Centre for Studies on Measurement of Physical Activity, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universidad del Rosario grant number [Code N FIUR DN-BG001]

Higher cardiorespiratory fitness levels may attenuate the detrimental association between weight status, metabolic phenotype and C-reactive protein in adolescents - a multi-Cohort study

Results from several studies show that only obese, unfit subjects, but not obese, fit subjects, are at higher mortality risk than are normal-weight fit subjects. The aim of the study was two-fold: (1) to examine the differences in C-reactive protein levels across different metabolic phenotypes (healthy and unhealthy) of weight status and (2) ascertain whether high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) attenuate the association of C-reactive protein and metabolic phenotypes of weight status. This was a pooled study, which included data from three cross-sectional projects (1706 youth (921 girls) aged 12–18 years). We used a Shuttle run test to assess CRF. Adolescents were classified into six metabolic phenotypes (healthy and unhealthy) of weight status (non-overweight, overweight and obese), based on age- and sex-specific cutoff points for triglycerides, systolic blood pressure, HDL-cholesterol, glucose and body mass index. High-sensitivity assays were used to obtain the C-reactive protein as inflammatory biomarker. After adjustment for potential confounders (age, sex, pubertal stage and country), the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) shows that C-reactive protein is directly associated with metabolic phenotypes of weight status. Subjects with obesity, regardless of their metabolic profile, had higher levels of C-reactive protein Z-score. In addition, (after adjustments for potential confounders) a two-way ANCOVA showed that high levels of CRF attenuated the associations of C-reactive protein levels in metabolic healthy non-overweight and in adolescents with obesity. In conclusion, higher CRF levels may attenuate the detrimental association between obesity and C-reactive protein independently of metabolic phenotype. Findings from this study are important for prevention, clinical practice on issues associated with adiposity and metabolic disorders.The Research Centre on Physical Activity Health and Leisure (CIAFEL) is supported by UID/DTP/00617/2013 (FCT). R.S. has a Discovery Early Career Research Award from the Australian Research Council (DE150101921). The FUPRECOL Study was carried out with the financial support of Instituto Colombiano para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y la Tecnología “Francisco José de Caldas” COLCIENCIAS (Contract Nº 671-2014 Code 122265743978). The authors are grateful to the Bogota District Education Secretary for the data used in this study. The authors also thank the participating Bogota District students, teachers, schools and staff. This study was funded by the Department of Education (Grand number: CENEDUCA1/2019) of the Government of Navarra (Spain). A.G.-H. is a Miguel Servet Fellow (Instituto de Salud Carlos III—CP18/0150). R.R.-V. is funded in part by a Postdoctoral Fellowship Resolution ID 420/2019 of the Universidad Pública de Navarra

Normal-Weight Obesity Is Associated with Increased Cardiometabolic Risk in Young Adults

Normal-weight obesity (NWO) has been shown to be associated with cardiometabolic dysfunction. However, little is known regarding this potential relationship in early adulthood. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between NWO and cardiometabolic risk factors in a large population of Colombian young adults. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 1354 subjects (61% women), aged from 18 to 30. Anthropometric data, including body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC), were estimated, and the percentage of fat mass was measured through bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). Muscular fitness was determined by using a handgrip strength test and normalized grip strength (NGS = handgrip (kg)/body mass (kg)). A cardiometabolic risk Z-score was derived by assessing WC, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) cholesterol, fasting glucose, and systolic blood pressure. NWO was defined by the combination of excess %BF (over 25.5% for men and 38.9% for women) and a BMI < 25 kg/m2 . The overall prevalence of NWO was 29.1%. Subjects with NWO have an increased risk of cardiometabolic risk compared to the normal-weight lean group (OR = 3.10). Moreover, NWO was associated with an increased risk of presenting low HDL-C (OR = 2.34), high abdominal obesity (OR = 7.27), and low NGS (OR = 3.30), p < 0.001. There is a high prevalence of NWO in American Latin young adults and this condition is associated with an increased cardiovascular risk, high blood pressure, low HDL-C, high abdominal obesity, and low muscular strength early in life. Screening for adiposity in subjects with a normal BMI could help to identify young adults at a high risk of cardiometabolic abnormalities.This study was part of the project entitled “Body Adiposity Index and Biomarkers of Endothelial and Cardiovascular Health in Adults” (Code N FIUR DN-BG001), Institución Universitaria Antonio José Camacho (Code N 111-02.01.48/16), Universidad Santo Tomás (Code N 2013004), Universidad Manuela Beltrán (Code N FT201204), and Universidad de Boyacá (Code N RECT 60). M.I. is funded in part by a research grant PI17/01814 of the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad de España (ISCIII, FEDER). A.G.-H. is a Miguel Servet Fellow (Instituto de Salud Carlos III—CP18/0150). R.R.-V. is funded in part by a Postdoctotal fellowship grant ID 420/2019 of the Universidad Pública de Navarra, Spain. The funder had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, preparation of the manuscript, or decision to publish

Self-Rated Health Status and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in a Sample of Schoolchildren from Bogotá, Colombia. The FUPRECOL Study

To evaluate the relationship between Self-Rated Health (SRH) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in a sample of children and adolescents enrolled in official schools in Bogotá, Colombia. A cross-sectional study was performed with 7402 children and adolescents between 9 and 17 years of age. Participants were asked to rate their health based on eight validated questions, addressing the participants propensity for headache, stomach-ache, backache, feeling-low, irritability/bad mood, nervousness, sleeping-difficulties, and dizziness. The choices were “rarely or never”, “almost every month”, “almost every week”, and “more than once a week/about every day”. Participants performed the international course-navette shuttle run test to estimate CRF, and cut-off points for age and gender were used to categorize the healthy/unhealthy fitness zone according to the FITNESSGRAM® criteria. Overall, 16.4% of those surveyed reported a perception of irritability/bad mood “more than once a week/about every day”, followed by feeling-low and nervousness (both with 9.9%). Dizziness had the lowest prevalence with a percentage of 6.9%. Unhealthy CRF in boys increased the likelihood of headaches by 1.20 times, stomach aches by 1.31 times, feeling-low by 1.29 times, nervousness by 1.24 times, and dizziness by 1.29 times. In girls, unhealthy CRF increased the likelihood of headaches by 1.19 times, backache by 1.26 times, feeling-low by 1.28 times, irritability/bad mood by 1.17 times, sleeping-difficulties by 1.20 times, and dizziness by 1.27 times. SRH was associated with CRF in both genders. Early identification of children and adolescents with low CRF levels will permit interventions to promote healthy behaviors and prevent future diseases during adulthood.The FUPRECOL Study was possible due to the financial support provided by the Instituto Colombiano para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y la Tecnología “Francisco José de Caldas” COLCIENCIAS (Contract No. 671-2014 Code 122265743978)

Active commuting to and from university, obesity and metabolic syndrome among Colombian university students

Background: There is limited evidence concerning how active commuting (AC) is associated with health benefits in young. The aim of the study was to analyze the relationship between AC to and from campus (walking) and obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in a sample of Colombian university students. Methods: A total of 784 university students (78.6% women, mean age = 20.1 ± 2.6 years old) participated in the study. The exposure variable was categorized into AC (active walker to campus) and non-AC (non/infrequent active walker to campus: car, motorcycle, or bus) to and from the university on a typical day. MetS was defined in accordance with the updated harmonized criteria of the International Diabetes Federation criteria. Results: The overall prevalence of MetS was 8.7%, and it was higher in non-AC than AC to campus. The percentage of AC was 65.3%. The commuting distances in this AC from/to university were 83.1%, 13.4% and 3.5% for < 2 km, 2- 5 km and > 5 km, respectively. Multiple logistic regressions for predicting unhealthy profile showed that male walking commuters had a lower probability of having obesity [OR = 0.45 (CI 95% 0.25–0.93)], high blood pressure [OR = 0.26 (CI 95% 0.13–0.55)] and low HDL cholesterol [OR = 0.29 (CI 95% 0.14–0.59)] than did passive commuters. Conclusions: Our results suggest that in young adulthood, a key life-stage for the development of obesity and MetS, AC could be associated with and increasing of daily physical activity levels, thereby promoting better cardiometabolic health.This study was part of the project entitled “Body Adiposity Index and Biomarkers of Endothelial and Cardiovascular Health in Adults”, which was funded by Centre for Studies on Measurement of Physical Activity, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universidad del Rosario (Code N° FIUR DNBG001) and Universidad de Boyacá (Code N° RECT 60)