Dataset Information

Exercise Thermoregulation in Prepubertal Children: A Brief Methodological Review.

ABSTRACT: Prepubertal children (6-12 yr) differ from adults in various morphological and physiological factors that may influence thermoregulatory function; however, experimental evidence of meaningful child-adult differences in heat strain during exercise-heat stress is sparse, despite numerous studies. Although we appreciate the challenges associated with performing such comparisons, part of that discrepancy may be due to the methods used. Nonetheless, a focused discussion of these methodological considerations and their implications for current understanding remains unavailable. This is an important knowledge gap given the threat to health posed by rising global temperatures and the ongoing focus on improving physical activity levels in children. The aims of this methodological review were, therefore, to (i) review the theoretical basis for child-adult differences in thermoregulatory function, (ii) describe previous comparisons of exercise thermoregulation between prepubertal children and adults, (iii) discuss two methodological issues associated with that research, which, in our view, make it difficult to present empirical evidence related to child-adult differences in thermoregulatory function and associated heat strain, (iv) provide potential solutions to these issues, and (v) propose pertinent areas for further research.

SUBMITTER: Notley SR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7556246 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Exercise Thermoregulation in Prepubertal Children: A Brief Methodological Review.

Notley Sean R SR Akerman Ashley P AP Meade Robert D RD McGarr Gregory W GW Kenny Glen P GP

Medicine and science in sports and exercise 20201101 11

Prepubertal children (6-12 yr) differ from adults in various morphological and physiological factors that may influence thermoregulatory function; however, experimental evidence of meaningful child-adult differences in heat strain during exercise-heat stress is sparse, despite numerous studies. Although we appreciate the challenges associated with performing such comparisons, part of that discrepancy may be due to the methods used. Nonetheless, a focused discussion of these methodological consid ...[more]

PMID: 32366798

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Project description:BackgroundDespite an increasing rate of women participating in professional sports, emergency services, and military settings where they are exposed to exertional heat stress, our understanding of female thermoregulation and the detrimental effects of heat on women's performance, especially regarding the menstrual cycle, is limited. This review aimed to quantify the representation of women in exercise thermoregulation research between 2010 and 2019 and the frequency that these articles reported details pertaining to female participants' menstrual cycle to determine the volume of novel research that is directly relevant to this growing population.MethodsOriginal exercise thermoregulatory studies published in three major sports medicine databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, and SPORTDiscus) between 2010 and 2019 were surveyed. Articles were screened to determine the number of female and male participants in the study and whether studies involving women reported menstrual orientation or phase. Research involving healthy adult participants and an exercise protocol with a thermoregulatory outcome measure were included in the review.ResultsA total of 1407 articles were included in the review, involving 28,030 participants. The annual representation of women ranged from a mean of 11.6% [95% credible interval (CI); 9.2, 14.3] to 17.8% [95% CI; 15.2, 20.6] across the 10 years, indicating studies predominantly included men. Nonetheless, there was a small statistical increase in the overall proportion of women, with a mean overall proportion change of 0.7% [95% CI; 0.2, 1.2] per year. The increase appeared to be driven by a reduction in the number of studies including only men, rather than studies including more women alongside men, or increased women-only studies. Less than one third of articles involving women reported the menstrual orientation of participants and less than one quarter reported both menstrual orientation and phase. This study shows that women were proportionally underrepresented in exercise thermoregulation research during the past decade and the majority of studies did not report menstrual cycle details of female participants. Researchers should consider including women in future work where their inclusion could contribute meaningful data that enhance the evidence-based and ultimately improves our comprehension of women's thermal physiology.

Project description:Objective: Adiposity induces the clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors, and pediatric adiposity is a better indicator for adulthood cardiometabolic diseases than pediatric metabolic syndrome. However, the observed prevalence of pediatric adiposity depends on the methods and cut-points used. Therefore, we aimed to define diagnostic criteria for adiposity which enable more valid identification of prepubertal children at increased cardiometabolic risk. Methods: The participants were 470 prepubertal children (249 boys) aged 6-8 years. The measures of adiposity included body mass index-standard deviation score (BMI-SDS), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and body fat percentage (BF%) assessed by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Criteria for adiposity were determined by increased cardiometabolic risk. Cardiometabolic risk factors which correlated with BF% assessed by DXA in the upper but not lower half of BF% (serum insulin and plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, gamma-glutamyl transferase, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and uric acid) were included in the cardiometabolic risk score (CMS). We computed receiver operating characteristics curves for the measures of adiposity using the ≥90th percentile of CMS as a measure of increased cardiometabolic risk, and local regression curves were graphed to demonstrate the associations of the measures of adiposity with CMS. Results: In girls, WHtR of 0.445 (area under curve 0.778, its 95% confidence interval 0.65-0.91, sensitivity and specificity 0.73) and BF% of 19.5% assessed by BIA (0.801, 0.70-0.90, 0.73) were the best overall criteria for increased cardiometabolic risk. In boys, BMI-SDS of 0.48 (0.833, 0.75-0.92, 0.76) was the best overall criterion for increased cardiometabolic risk. While local regression curves in girls showed that WHtR of 0.445 corresponds well to a point where CMS began to increase, in boys local regression curves suggest that CMS began to increase even at a lower level of BMI-SDS than 0.48. Moreover, the diagnostic ability of the measures of adiposity to exclude increased cardiometabolic risk was poorer than the ability to detect it. Conclusions: In general, the measures of adiposity have sufficient diagnostic accuracy to be utilized as the screening tool for increased cardiometabolic risk. The observed cut-points for adiposity were lower than the traditional cut-points for adiposity.

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Exercise Thermoregulation in Prepubertal Children: A Brief Methodological Review.

Publications

Exercise Thermoregulation in Prepubertal Children: A Brief Methodological Review.

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