OBJECTIVES: to describe total cholesterol (TC) plasma levels according to age and sex; to determine the contribution of sex, age, body mass index and physical activity (PA) to TC variation; to determine the odds ratio for high total cholesterol (HTC) plasma levels of the subjects in the first PA quartile (lower PA) in comparison to the fourth PA quartile. METHODS: the sample comprised 799 white children and adolescents, 353 males and 446 females. Body height and body weight were determined by standard anthropometric methods. Subject's capillary blood samples were taken from the earlobe after at least 12 hours fasting in order to obtain values of plasmatic TC. To calculate physical activity index (PAI) a PA questionnaire was used. RESULTS: the logistic regression of HTC for males and females showed that girls in the lower quartile of PAI, are 3.0 times (p <0.05; 95%CI: 1.3-6.8) as likely to belong at HTC group in relation to girls in the fourth PAI quartile. No significant influence was found in boys. CONCLUSIONS: the results of the present study suggested that the higher TC values could be found even in early ages.
Motor activity; Cholesterol; Risk factors; Cardiovascular diseases
