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Muscle strength affects cardiometabolic risk factors among teens
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Greater normalized muscle strength is independently linked to lower cardiometabolic risk among adolescents, according to recent findings.
Researchers evaluated 1,421 sixth-grade students enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Intervention Program (CHIP), a population-based study that features screenings for cardiometabolic risk factors, as well as a health education initiative. The children included in this analysis were students at 17 schools throughout central Michigan who participated in the CHIP study between 2005 and 2008. The study population was 95% white, 52.9% female and aged 10 to 13 years.
The researchers collected anthropometric and body composition measurements for all participants, including height, body mass, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio and skinfold thickness. The researchers assessed BP, fasting glucose, plasma triglyceride levels and HDL and LDL cholesterol, and formulated a continuous aggregate score (MetScore) to evaluate various measures of cardiometabolic risk, with a higher MetScore indicating greater risk.
Participants indicated their physical activity levels via a questionnaire administered during screening. Cardiorespiratory fitness was measured via a 7-minute step test, and three strength trials were performed using a hydraulic handgrip dynamometer in the dominant hand of each patient.
Children were overweight or obese in 42.2% of cases. Both male and female participants who were in the highest normalized strength tertiles per body mass had significantly lower BMI, waist circumference, body fat percentage and absolute fat mass, and had lower levels of cardiometabolic parameters.
Age, BMI, cardiorespiratory fitness, physical activity and strength were all associated with individual cardiometabolic risk factors, as well as overall MetScore. However, only BMI, physical activity and normalized strength capacity were significantly predictive of MetScore in the adjusted model, with higher BMI linked to increased MetScore and physical activity and normalized strength capacity associated with lower MetScore. Researchers observed no links between MetScore and age, sex or cardiorespiratory fitness in the adjusted model.
According to the researchers, these findings validate the recent international consensus on the importance of youth resistance training.
“This study presents a comprehensive look at the independent association between strength capacity and cardiometabolic health profiles in children,” the researchers wrote. “… These findings reinforce the recent international consensus on youth resistance training, as well as the WHO’s global recommendations on [physical activity] for health. … Greater clinical attention to and support of early behavioral interventions to increase [physical activity], reduce adiposity and increase muscular strength capacity are certainly warranted.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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