Girls were more likely than boys to have cardiovascular disease risk factors such as poor aerobic capacity and a high percentage of body fat in a study involving almost 1,800 elementary school students.
Using the FITNESSGRAM Healthy Fitness Zone (HFZ) standards in 1,775 fourth- and fifth-grade students (879 boys, 896 girls) from an urban, predominantly black population, investigators found that significantly more girls than boys did not meet the HFZ for aerobic capacity (71% vs. 42%), percent body fat (53% vs. 30%), and body mass index (44% vs. 34%). Those who did not meet the HFZ for each measure were classified as “needs improvement” or “needs improvement – health risk.”
Overall, more than 66% of the study sample “had metabolic syndrome risk factors based on FITNESSGRAM assessments,” said Susan B. Racette, PhD, of Washington University, St. Louis, and her associates (Prev Med. 2017. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2017.07.032).
More than half of the girls (51%) didn’t meet the HFZ for aerobic capacity and one of the body composition measures, compared with 32% of the boys, and 38% of the girls failed to meet the HFZ for all three measures, compared with 21% of the boys. The reverse side of that coin – those who did meet the HFZ for all three – favored the boys, 46% to 21%, the investigators reported.
“The presence of these cardiovascular disease risk factors in girls, in particular, highlights an important need for creative strategies to mitigate the long-term health and societal consequences of these modifiable risk factors,” Dr. Racette and her associates wrote.
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Education and the Washington University division of biostatistics. The investigators said that they had no conflicts of interest.
