Patrones morfológicos asociados a factores de riesgo metabólico en población de adolescentes escolarizados

The sustained increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents causes alarm in the scientific community, who observe significant increases in diseases associated with Metabolic Syndrome (MS), in adult life. Chile presents 75 % with overweight and obesity in the adult population and 50.9 % in the student population and with 66.2 % of sedentary lifestyle. The objectives of this work were to determine the anthropometric profiles and their association with metabolic risk in adolescents from a subsidized private school in Arica-Chile. The total of high school students, n = 810 (women n = 437 and men n = 373), were evaluated according to: weight, height, waist circumference, waist-height index (WHI), body mass index (BMI). Metabolic risk was calculated for all of them according to Ashwell & Gibson protocols and BMI according to Quetelet's formula. The data were analyzed in statistics for central tendency, dispersion, and percentages. Pearson test (r> 0.5) was used for correlation. The results show that 44.1 % of women and 37.2 % of men are overweight and obese. The general metabolic risk of the study population was 24.6 % (24.7 % and 24.4 % in women and men, respectively). A high correlation was observed between WC / WHI (r = 0.92), BMI / WHI (r = 0.86) and Weight / WC (r = 0.87). It is concluded that adolescents present altered anthropometric values that indicate high rates of metabolic risks. The most altered parameters were observed in the second year of secondary education with percentages of overweight and obesity of 49.1 % in women versus 33.8 % in men. Regardless, males presented better morphometric indices than females. High correlations (r> 0.5) were observed in all the parameters under study, associated with metabolic risk. It is suggested to focus educational interventions according to the seal of healthy living, encouraging physical activity and improving eating habits in school adolescents.