ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Adolesc. Med.
Sec. Obesity and Nutrition in Adolescents
Impact of Metabolic Score for Visceral Fat on Bone Health in Adolescent Population: A Cross-Sectional Study Perspective
Provisionally accepted
- Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China
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Background and Objective:Research on The Metabolic Score for Visceral Fat and bone health in adolescents is restrained. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between The Metabolic Score for Visceral Fat , bone mineral content, and bone metabolism indexes in Chinese adolescents. Methods:This cross-sectional study used stratified cluster sampling to select 1206 adolescents(12-18 years) from six schools in Yinchuan City (2017-2023). Body composition and bone mineral content (BMC) of the participants were measured using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). Serum bone metabolism indexes (OC and CTX) were measured. Results:METS-VF was found to be associated with BMC (r=0.484,P<0.001) an d OC (r=-0.074,P=0.010), but not with CTX (r=0.042,P=0.141). After adjusting for factors, the risk of low BMC and low OC in the highest quartile of ME TS-VF was 0.19(95% CI: 0.06-0.58) and 3.47 (95% CI: 1.82-6.59) times highe r than that in the lowest quartile, respectively(all P-values<0.05); after stratifica tion by gender,an association was found only in girls(OR=0.20,95%CI:0.06-0.69, P=0.011).RCS curves indicated that there was an inverted U-shaped non-linear relationship between METS-VF and BMC (P-value <0.001, P-nonlinear=0.014). However, stratification by gender showed a linear association in boys and girl s (P-nonlinear=0.083 and 0.153; both P<0.05); Moreover, linear relationships be tween METS-VF and OC and CTX were found (P-nonlinear=0.180 and 0.507,b oth P<0.05; respectively).ROC curves showed that METS-VF was the best for the assessment of low bone mass ( AUC=0.803,95%CI=0.749-0.856,P<0.05). Conclusion:Research had shown there was a non-linear positive correlation between METS-VF and BMC in adolescents, and fat distribution and content were more closely related to bone metabolism.
Keywords: Osteoporosis, Bone mineral content, Bone metabolism markers, the metabolic score for visceral fat, adolescents
Received: 03 Jul 2025; Accepted: 24 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Chen, Shi, Xu and Ding. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wenqing Ding, dwqdz@163.com
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