ArticleBMJ open sport & exercise medicine2025
Mediation of obesity-related variables in the association between physical fitness and cardiometabolic risk in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Article in BMJ open sport & exercise medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Discriminatory Capacity of Anthropometric Indicators and Physical Fitness Tests for Identifying Waist-to-Height Ratio-Defined Cardiometabolic Risk in Adolescents According to Sex and Biological Maturity.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Mediator role of physical activity in the relationship between anthropometric indicators and blood pressure in children with normal weight and children with overweight/obesity.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Physical fitness as a predictor of health-related quality of life in children.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- Supervised Machine Learning Algorithms for Fitness-Based Cardiometabolic Risk Classification in Adolescents.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: To examine the mediation of obesity-related variables in the association between physical fitness and cardiometabolic risk in children and adolescents. Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources: Studies from electronic databases from inception to 31 December 2023. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies: Included were 123 observational studies (cross-sectional and longitudinal) that assessed risk by constructing a continuous score incorporating cardiometabolic parameters. Studies were considered if they evaluated at least one fitness component as an exposure in children and adolescents (5-19 years). Thirty-one were included in the main meta-analyses. Results: Cross-sectional findings indicate that cardiorespiratory fitness is modestly but beneficially associated with cardiometabolic risk, either indirectly via obesity-related variables (indirect standardized beta coefficient [β Conclusion: The association between fitness and risk appears to take place either indirectly through the reduction of obesity-related levels or directly by influencing risk. The latter underscores that the inverse association extends beyond a mere reduction in obesity-related variables, encompassing specific enhancements linked to exercise training, including increased metabolic efficiency, and cardiovascular capacity. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42022354628.
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