Diet quality, eating behaviors, other lifestyle factors and cardiometabolic risk in children

Identificador:  TDX:4311

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX4311

Autors:  Garcidueñas Fimbres, Tany Elizabeth

Resum:
Childhood obesity have many detrimental effects on health that may track into adulthood. In Spain, around 41% of children aged 6-9 years had overweight or obesity in 2019 and, at present, is one of the European countries with higher prevalence. Etiology of obesity comprises a wide network of factors, mainly related to lifestyle. Recently, eating speed, eating frequency and adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) have been suggested as behaviors potentially related to obesity and certain comorbidities, such as cardiometabolic disorders. Nevertheless, evidence on children is limited. This thesis aimed to summarize evidence on the associations between certain eating behaviors, cardiometabolic risk and diet quality. The association between eating speed and cardiometabolic risk as well as adherence to the MedDiet was also assessed. Also, it was created a composite score which assessed the co-occurrence of adherence to the MedDiet, eating speed, breastfeeding, sleep duration, physical activity and sedentary behaviors and their associations with adiposity and several cardiometabolic risk factors in children. The individual contribution on these associations by each of the lifestyle behaviors was also assessed. This thesis shows that eating speed and adherence to the MedDiet are related to adiposity and the levels of certain cardiometabolic risk factors. Furthermore, although the co-occurrence of the lifestyle behaviors assessed was associated with adiposity and cardiometabolic risk, the individual contribution of each of them shown not to be equal so that eating speed contributes greatly to a beneficial cardiometabolic health, especially for fasting plasma glucose concentration. Meanwhile, adherence to the MedDiet shown to be a great contributor to serum triglycerides levels. Nevertheless, further research is warranted to confirm these associations observed, which if confirmed, eating speed, in tandem with adherence to MedDiet, could be considered modifiable eating behaviors with a relevant role in alleviating the consequences of this challenging Public Health issue.