Obesity is a chronic and multifactorial disease resulting from an interaction between social,
behavioral,
cultural and genetic factors. Nowadays,
obesity is considered a serious public health problem,
presenting an increasing prevalence in recent decades in several populations (1).
Obesity,
generally,
results from an imbalance between ingested and consumed energy.
In a normal individual,
adipose tissue represents about 20% of body weight,
being the largest organ of the human body and it is located mainly at the subcutaneous and visceral level.
Its distribution is determined genetically and depends on factors such as age,
gender and nutritional status (1).
In recent years,
adipose tissue is considered an organ with multiple functions and with a central role in the genesis of insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus type 2 (2).
It is known that the adipocyte is signaled by several molecules,
such as insulin,
cortisol and catecholamines,
releasing a wide variety of substances that act both locally and systemically,
regulating various processes such as endothelial function,
atherogenesis,
insulin sensitivity and regulation of the energy balance (3). Some of these substances such as leptin,
adiponectin,
TNF-α have a key role in tissue sensitivity to insulin.
The adipocyte,
according to its location,
presents,
also,
different metabolic characteristics,
and intra-abdominal adiposity is the one that has the greatest impact on altered insulin sensitivity (4,5).
Klein (2007) suggests that the distribution of body fat is determinant for the development of obesity-related cardiometabolic diseases and the abdominal fat excess is the one of the reasons for these diseases (6).
Abdominal obesity (android fat,
apple-shaped) has a higher correlation with metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease than gluteus-femoral obesity (gynoid fat,
pear-shaped).
That is why obese or overweight individuals should be evaluated for their fat distribution.
Considering the relevance of visceral fat on obesity and cardiovascular diseases studies,
several methods have been proposed to evaluate the distribution of body fat and quantification of intra-abdominal adiposity.
However,
identifying the type of abdominal fat requires more sophisticated imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (6).
DEXA (dual energy x-ray absorptiometry),
widely used in the assessment of bone mineral density and bone mass estimation,
but also able to measure total and regional body fat,
such as in the trunk and abdomen.
In this way,
it is used to measure abdominal fat (subcutaneous and visceral components together) and to track cardiovascular risk patients,
however only a few stduies were done (7).
So,
the aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship between % body fat (%BF) and % abdominal fat (%ABDF) evaluated by bone densitometry (DEXA) and risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in young adult’s students.