Clinical Significance of Abdominal Fat Distribution in Korean Male Children and Adolescents

Purpose: Visceral adipose tissue may be strongly linked to increased metabolic risks in adults. However, because little is known regarding the effect of visceral adipose tissue in children and adolescents, we performed this study to determine the association between abdominal fat distribution and metabolic risk factors in this population. Methods: One hundred one children and adolescents (78 males and 23 females; mean age, 10.8±2.4 years) were enrolled. The anthropometric data and metabolic risk factors were evaluated. Theabdominal fat distribution was assessed according to the CT measurement. Age-adjusted, partial correlations were performed among the visceral adipose fat area (VFA), subcutaneous adiposefat area (SFA), metabolic risk factors, and anthropometrics. Results: The SFA increased more rapidly than the VFA with advancing years in both genders. In males, the VFA and SFA were positively correlated with anthropometrics. The VFA was correlated with low HDL-cholesterol and the SFA was correlated with diastolic blood pressure (DBP). However, there was no statistical significance between the VFA, SFA, anthropometrics, and other metabolic risk factors. The VFA and SFA were strongly linked to a number of metabolic risk factors, such as other anthropometrics. Conclusion: This study investigated how a low HDL-C was correlated with VFA and how a high DBP was associated with SFA in Korean male children and adolescents. Our results suggest that the correlation between the VFA, SFA, and metabolic risk factors was relatively weak compared to that reported in previous adult studies. (Korean J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 2010; 13: 172∼179)