The Effects Of Cardiorespiratory Fitness And Total Body Fatness On Arterial Stiffness In Healthy Overweight And Non-Overweight Children And Adolescents

Our objective was to determine whether increased central aortic stiffness is associated with decreased cardiorespiratory fitness or increased adiposity in healthy children. Seventy 7-to-17-year-old children were studied. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) and brachial systolic blood pressure were compared according to quartiles of ratio-scaled oxygen uptake at first ventilatory threshold (VO2 at VT1), body fat percentage, and body mass index. A separate ANOVA with Dunnett’s T3 post-hoc tests for multiple comparisons of quartiles was conducted for each dependent variable, with each comparison evaluated at an alpha level of 0.05. Our results are in line with previous literature suggesting that higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness and lower body mass index are associated with lower central arterial stiffness. In particular, VO2 at VT1 normalized for fat-free mass was inversely associated with cfPWV. Moreover, contrary to some of the present literature, our findings suggest there is no difference in arterial stiffness between the lowest and the highest body fat percentage.