Dietary Intake and Physical Activity of Normal Weight and Overweight/Obese Adolescents

Purpose. To evaluate the relationship between overweight/obesity and dietary/lifestyle factors among Italian adolescents. Methods. On a total of 756 adolescents with mean age 12.4 ± 0.9, body mass index, food consumption, and time dedicated to after school physical activities and to TV viewing were determined. The data were analysed according to age, nutritional status, and gender. The analysis of variance and multiple logistic regression analysis were performed to investigate the association between dietary/lifestyle factors and overweight/obesity. Results. The percentages of overweight and obesity were, respectively, 28% and 9% among boys, 24% and 7% among girls. The overweight/obesity condition in both genders was associated with parental overweight/obesity (P < .001 for mother), less time devoted to physical activity (P < .001 for boys and P < .02 for girls) and being on a diet (P < .001). Direct associations were also observed between BMI and skipping breakfast and the lower number of meals a day (boys only). Conclusions. This pilot study reveals some important dietary and lifestyle behaviour trends among adolescents that assist with identification of specific preventive health actions

Novelty in hypertension in children and adolescents: Focus on hypertension during the first year of life, use and interpretation of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, role of physical activity in prevention and treatment, simple carbohydrates and uric acid as risk factors

The present article intends to provide an update of the article "Focus on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hypertension in children and adolescents" published in 2013 (Spagnolo et al., Ital J Pediatr 39:20, 2013) in this journal. This revision is justified by the fact that during the last years there have been several new scientific contributions to the problem of hypertension in pediatric age and during adolescence. Nevertheless, for what regards some aspects of the previous article, the newly acquired information did not require substantial changes to what was already published, both from a cultural and from a clinical point of view. We felt, however, the necessity to rewrite and/or to extend other parts in the light of the most recent scientific publications. More specifically, we updated and extended the chapters on the diagnosis and management of hypertension in newborns and unweaned babies, on the use and interpretation of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, and on the usefulness of and indications for physical activity. Furthermore, we added an entirely new section on the role that simple carbohydrates (fructose in particular) and uric acid may play in the pathogenesis of hypertension in pediatric age