Association among sexual maturation, overweight and central adiposity in children and adolescents at two schools in são Paulo

The objective of this study was to assess the association among sexual maturation (SM), overweight and central adiposity in children and adolescents. A total of 617 children and adolescents age 8 to 18 years old participated in the longitudinal study. Three samples were collected including data on weight, height and waist circumference. Overweight was classi-fied based on critical values for body mass index (BMI) adopted for Brazilian children and teenagers. SM stage (SMS) was done by self-assessment in three children and adolescent samples. Participants were distributed in quartiles based on SMS and sex. Accelerated-maturing subjects were compared to others. Data was analyzed by linear regression and logistic regression. We found a negative association between BMI z-score and onset of SM in boys, whereas for girls relatively-accelerated SM was positively associated to overweight and values of BMI z-score. Relatively-accelerated maturing girls showed more central adi-posity. The research concluded that accelerated SM was associated to overweight and high-er increase in BMI for both sexes, highlighting the importance of identifying SMS in nutri-tional assessment for children and teenagers.