Abdominal visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissues in association with cardiometabolic risk in children and adolescents: the China Child and Adolescent Cardiovascular Health (CCACH) study

Objective: To investigate the association of abdominal visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) with cardiometabolic risk factors in children and adolescents. Research design and methods: This cross-sectional study consisted of 8460 children and adolescents aged 6-18 years from Chinese urban areas who underwent dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan and had metabolic risk factors measured. Results: In multivariate analysis adjusted for region, family income, age, puberty development, physical activity, and smoking, VAT and SAT were significantly associated with all metabolic risk factors for both sexes (all p<0.01). After additional adjustment for fat mass index, most of these associations remain significantly positive. In boys, SAT had greater ORs for all risk factors compared with VAT; in girls, however, SAT had greater odds for high triglycerides, smaller odds for high low-density lipid cholesterol, and similar odds for other risk factors compared with VAT. In addition, boys had greater magnitude of associations of SAT with high total cholesterol, high low-density lipid cholesterol, and low high-density lipid cholesterol compared with girls; no sex differences for VAT were observed. Conclusions: Both abdominal VAT and SAT have adverse impacts on most of the cardiometabolic risk factors in youth. However, their relative contributions differ between sexes.