Clusters of obesogenic behaviors and metabolic risk according to somatic maturity status among adolescents

Objective This study aimed to identify the clusters of obesogenic behaviors, and verify the association with metabolic risk according to the categories of somatic maturity status of adolescents. Methods This is a cross‐sectional study conducted with 1159 (55.1% girls) Brazilian adolescents aged between 10 and 16 years (mean age: 12.9 years). Measurements of waist circumference, blood pressure, blood glucose, HDL‐C, and triglycerides were combined to calculate a metabolic risk score. Somatic maturity was assessed by estimating the peak of height velocity. The obesogenic behaviors analyzed were physical activity (Baecke questionnaire), sedentary behavior (screen‐based behaviors) and dietary habits (consumption of healthy and unhealthy food). The Two Step clustering algorithm using the log‐likelihood measure was employed to cluster formation and regression models were adopted to the main analysis. Results We observed a complex co‐existence of obesogenic behaviors. Differences regarding the metabolic risk between clusters was only observed among the early‐maturing adolescents, where the cluster with higher number of healthy behaviors but lower physical activity presented higher metabolic risk score. Conclusions We conclude that physical activity has an important role on the association of clusters of obesogenic behaviors and metabolic risk in early‐maturing adolescents.