Sports participation improves metabolic profile in adolescents: ABCD growth study

Correlates of early attrition from school sports clubs in male senior high school students: a 2.4-year follow-up study

The correlation between early attrition and school sports clubs has been underexplored. This study aims to clarify the correlates of early attrition from school sports clubs at a private male senior high school in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Of the 928 first-year students, 331 belonging to the school's sports clubs were included in this study. A baseline survey was conducted in May 2017 and a follow-up survey was conducted in October 2019. This study defined early attrition as a student who quit a sports club earlier than April in their third year. Examined correlates for early attrition consisted of biological, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and institutional factors. We used univariate logistic regression analysis, in which early attrition was the response variable and the examined correlates were the explanatory variables, and calculated the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Overall, 232 students (85.0%) continued to participate in sports clubs after April of their third year, and 41 students (15.0%) experienced early attrition. Statistically significant correlates for early attrition were weight (OR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.90-0.98), body mass index (OR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.74-0.97), experience of injury or disability (OR = 0.40, 95% CI = 0.19-0.87), athletic achievement (OR = 0.29, 95% CI = 0.13-0.62), and duration of experience of the sport (OR = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.98-1.00). Our findings suggest that the school officers or family members of students should recognize the possibility of early attrition and provide appropriate support if a student experiences early attrition. The athletic level or norms of school sports club activities may differ among other schools and sports clubs; therefore, it is necessary to examine whether our findings are applicable to other schools and sports clubs.

Association of Early Sports Participation With Sedentary Behavior in Community-Dwelling Adults-The Role of Sociodemographic Factors in a Retrospective Epidemiological Study

BACKGROUND

The role of sociodemographic factors in the association between early sports participation (ESP) and sedentary behavior is unclear. We analyzed the association of ESP with sedentary behavior and identified the influence of sociodemographic factors in adulthood.

METHODS

A sample of 264 community-dwelling adults was randomly assessed (42.6 [17.0] y old, 57.6% women). Sociodemographic factors (age, gender, and socioeconomic status) and ESP (retrospectively) were assessed by questionnaire. Sedentary behavior was measured by accelerometer and self-reported for domains identification. The association between ESP and sedentary behavior domains and sociodemographic factors was analyzed by Poisson regression and presented in prevalence ratio (PR). Sociodemographic factors were separately included as covariates to identify their role in the main association analysis.

RESULTS

The ESP prevalence was 56.4% (n = 149). ESP participants included a higher proportion of men (59.7% vs 20.0%), had a lower age (36.8 [15.3] vs 50.8 [15.9]), and included a smaller proportion of individuals with low socioeconomic status (24.8% vs 43.5%) compared with those without ESP. The ESP was inversely associated with older age (PR = 0.58, P < .001 for middle aged; PR = 0.34, P < .001 for older participants), female gender (PR = 0.79, P < .001), low socioeconomic status (PR = 0.63, P = .036), and TV watching (PR = 0.67, P = .011). ESP was associated with driving (PR = 1.50, P = .028), office/paper work (PR = 1.63, P = .012), and using a cellphone (PR = 1.60, P = .009). The age was the main confounding factor of association between ESP and sedentary behavior, followed by socioeconomic status. No mediation role was identified.

CONCLUSION

The ESP was associated with mentally active behavior domains and inversely associated with mentally passive sedentary behavior domains, but this association was majorly affected by sociodemographic factors, mainly by age.

Impact of sports participation on cardiovascular health markers of children and adolescents: Systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Cardiovascular diseases have a high prevalence in adults and their development begins in the first decades of life. On the other hand, sports participation in childhood and adolescence provides benefits which can delay the onset of these diseases.

AIM

To synthesize the available literature on the impact of sports participation on cardiovascular outcomes in children and adolescents.

METHODS

This systematic review was conducted on studies of children and adolescents (aged 8-18 years) who regularly practiced a sport and had reported cardiovascular outcomes (blood pressure and intima-media thickness) recorded. The Medline/PubMed, SciELO, Reference Citation Analysis (https://www.referencecitationanalysis.com/) and Bireme databases were searched.

RESULTS

In total, 3314 publications for blood pressure and 122 publications for intima-media thickness were identified in the databases. After exclusions (e.g., duplicate articles, animal studies and those that did not meet the inclusion criteria), four publications for blood pressure (449 adolescents) and two publications for intima-media thickness were included (402 adolescents). For blood pressure, all publications were longitudinal in design (follow-up ranging from 12 wk to 12 mo) and involved adolescents aged from 8 years to 18 years of age. For intima-media thickness, both publications were longitudinal in design and involved adolescents aged from 11 years to 18 years of age.

CONCLUSION

Sports participation seems to promote benefits to cardiovascular structure and function in adolescents. However, studies with adolescents are scarce and further research is needed to understand this phenomenon.

Structural equation model of the effect of biological maturation on metabolic syndrome risk and C-reactive protein: effect of trunk fat and sports participation

Our aim was to analyze the association between somatic maturation and alterations in metabolic syndrome (METs) risk and C-reactive protein (CRP), focusing on the effect of changes in trunk fat and sports practice. This was a longitudinal study with a one-year follow-up. The sample was composed of 139 adolescents (46 without sports participation and 93 young athletes), aged 10-17 years. As outcomes, we adopted CRP and METs risk (triglycerides, HDL-c, fasting glucose, and mean blood pressure). Somatic maturation was estimated using Mirwald's method. Structural equation models were used. Somatic maturation was not associated with sports practice, trunk fat, METs risk neither CRP. Sports practice was associated with a reduction in METs risk (β = -0.926; 95%CI:-1.773, -0.080) and reduction in trunk fat (-10.957; -19.630, -2.283), which was associated with increases in METs risk (0.020; 0.004, 0.036). In the CRP model, sports practice was associated with a reduction in trunk fat (-10.324; -18.637, -2.010), which in turn was associated with a reduction in CRP (0.007; 0.001, 0.013). Sports practice and lower trunk adiposity were associated with reductions in trunk fat, METs risk, and CRP through direct and indirect pathways. Our findings highlight the role of sports practice in attenuating the negative effect of trunk adiposity.

Cardiovascular health indicators in soccer exercise during adolescence: systematic review

This review analyzed the studies that evaluated cardiovascular health indicators (blood pressure, waist circumference, heart rate, glucose index and lipid blood) in recreational soccer players during adolescence, and identify possible associated factors. The search was performed in the electronic databases (PubMED, SciELO, LILACS, Scopus, SPORTDiscus and Web of Science). Inclusion criteria were: population composed of children and/or adolescents (10-19 years or average age up to 19 years); studies adolescents engaged in recreational soccer regularly and observational studies with cross-sectional or longitudinal design. The process of analysis of studies involved reading titles, abstracts and full texts. After these phases, seven articles were eligible. Regarding the design, all studies were cross-sectional. Of the total studies included, five presented moderate methodological quality values and two presented low methodological quality values, according to National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute instrument. The most cardiovascular health indicators used in recreational soccer players during adolescence was waist circumference; three studies analyzed heart rate, two evaluated blood pressure, one analyzed insulin resistance and none of the included studies analyzed lipid profile. Factors associated were analyzed in four studies, being that sedentary time and body mass index (BMI) present association with at least one indicator of cardiovascular health.