Association between Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet and Physical Fitness with Body Composition Parameters in 1717 European Adolescents: The AdolesHealth Study

Abstract

Obesity, low levels of physical fitness, and unhealthy eating patterns are responsiblefor part of the health problems of adolescents today. The current study aimed at examining theassociation between the adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD), through each answer to the itemsof the Adherence to the MD Questionnaire (KIDMED), and physical fitness with body compositionparameters (body mass index (BMI), percentage of body fat, and waist circumference) in 1717European adolescents (N=900 boys, N=817 girls). Data of body composition, physical fitness results,and the answers to KIDMED were analyzed by the Student’st-test. Additionally, the effect size (ES)was calculated and a Chi-square test analyzed the proportion of participants with and without overwaist circumference, overfat, and overweight in each KIDMED question. The relative risk of sufferingover waist circumference, overfat and overweight in relation to the responses was calculated byOdd-Ratio. Adherence to the MD did not influence the condition of over waist circumference, overfatand overweight, although certain dietary habits were identified as risk factors for their development.Over waist circumference, overfat, and overweight boys and girls presented higher levels of bodymass, waist circumference, body fat percentage, and BMI (p<0.001; ES=1.73–3.38), as well as lowerlevels of all the parameters of the physical fitness analyzed (p<0.001; ES=0.45–1.08), except thehandgrip test. A direct relationship between fitness and over waist circumference, overfat, andoverweight was found.