The Arkansas active kids study: Identifying contributing factors to metabolic health and obesity status in prepubertal school-age children

Authors: BAI, SHASHA - The Ohio State University; GOUDIE, ANTHONY - University Arkansas For Medical Sciences (UAMS); BORSHEIM, ELISABET - Arkansas Children'S Nutrition Research Center (ACNC); WEBER, JUDITH - Arkansas Children'S Nutrition Research Center (ACNC)

Submitted to: Journal of Nutrition and Health
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/2/2020
Publication Date: 12/17/2020
Citation: Bai, S., Goudie, A., Borsheim, E., Weber, J.L. 2020. The Arkansas active kids study: Identifying contributing factors to metabolic health and obesity status in prepubertal school-age children. Journal of Nutrition and Health. https://doi.org/10.1177/0260106020975571.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0260106020975571

Interpretive Summary: Childhood overweight and obesity rates are higher in Arkansas than the national averages, which makes it important to find out why this is the case. Further, it is important to determine how obesity and various factors like fitness, physical activity, nutritional patterns, and home environment affect the health of Arkansas children. This paper describes the design and the analysis plan of the Arkansas Active Kids (AAK) study which addresses the questions raised above. We studied dietary and physical activity data from two national surveys (National Survey of Children's Health and Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System). Further, a detailed study was conducted with 226 Arkansas children, 7-10 years that had not yet reached puberty. In addition to a study visit in the lab where they underwent many measurements important to obesity and metabolism (e.g., body composition, energy expenditure, fitness tests, blood/urine/saliva sampling), their physical activity was measured over many days after their visit. This paper describes the details of the Arkansas Active Kids study, which forms the foundation for future contributions that will describe how physical activity, fitness, and dietary patterns associate with obesity prevalence and overall metabolic health in children.

Technical Abstract: We report the design, protocol, and statistical analysis plan for the Arkansas Active Kids (AAK) Study. The study investigates the complex relationships between factors that contribute to metabolic health and obesity status in prepubertal school–age children in the state of Arkansas. We aim to identify modifiable behavioral and environmental factors and phenotypes related to metabolic health that are associated with obesity status that, if addressed effectively, can aid in designing effective intervention strategies to improve fitness and reduce obesity in children. We analyzed dietary and physical activity data from two national surveys (National Survey of Children's Health and Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System). We then conducted detailed surveys to collect dietary, physical activity, socio-demographic, and environmental data from a sample of 226 prepubertal Arkansas children. In the same sample of prepubertal children, we also collected extensive physiologic data to further study associations between physical activity and metabolic health. All study visits included detailed measures of vital signs, energy expenditure, components of physical fitness, body composition, and the collection of biological samples for determination of metabolic analytes. The observational, environmental, and physiological results will be used to craft multivariate statistical models to identify which variables define "phenotype signatures" that associate with fitness level and obesity status.