Evaluation of Physical Fitness, Body Composition, and Adherence to Mediterranean Diet in Adolescents from Estonia: The AdolesHealth Study

Unhealthylifestyles,lowlevelsofphysicalfitness,andadherencetotheMediterraneandiet (MD)areassociatedwithbadqualityoflifeandthedevelopmentofawiderangeofnon-communicable diseases (NCDs). The current study aimed to evaluate the level of adherence to the MD in physical fitness performance and body composit...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Galán López, Pablo, Domínguez, Raúl, Pihu, Maret, Gísladóttir, Thordis, Sánchez Oliver, Antonio Jesús, Ries, Francis, MDPI (Coordinador)
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/97934
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/97934
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16224479
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Adolescents
Obesity
Nutrition
Sedentary
Physical inactivity
Lifestyle
Cardiovascular risk factors
Body composition
Descripción
Sumario:Unhealthylifestyles,lowlevelsofphysicalfitness,andadherencetotheMediterraneandiet (MD)areassociatedwithbadqualityoflifeandthedevelopmentofawiderangeofnon-communicable diseases (NCDs). The current study aimed to evaluate the level of adherence to the MD in physical fitness performance and body composition parameters in children and adolescents of Estonia. Therefore, 413 adolescents (56% boys) from the city of Tartu completed the Mediterranean Diet Questionnaire (KIDMED) for analyzing the adherence to MD and performed the Alpha Fitness Test for measuring physical fitness and body composition. A 41.67% of low, 44.05% of average, and 14.28% of high adherence to MD was detected, without difference between genders (p = 0.747). In the Alpha Fitness battery, a higher performance was observed in all tests for boys vs. girls (p < 0.05). In relation to body composition, higher height, weight, and waist values were observed in boys (p < 0.05) and a lower body fat percentage (p < 0.01) without differences in body mass index (BMI; p = 0.906). The adherence to the MD is classified as average/low. Gender significantly influences all variables of the Alpha Fitness battery and anthropometrics measures excepting BMI. According the levelsofadherencetotheMD,nostatisticallydifferentprevalencewasobservedforNon-Overweight (N-Oweight), Non-Overfat (N-Ofat), or Non-Overwaist (N-Owaist). Still, a risk factor for Overweight (Oweight) in boys with low adherence was observed in comparison to those with a mid-level of adherence to the MD.