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31 pages, 1 table, 1 figure.-- Other authors: Afinos Study Group.-- Provisional PDF. ; Background Prior studies addressing the impacts of regular physical activity or sedentary habits on the immune system have been conducted in adults and laboratory settings. Thus, it is practically unknown how a healthy active lifestyle could affect low-grade inflammation processes, infections or allergies in young persons. The AFINOS Study was designed to determine the relationship between the regular physical activity levels of adolescents and overweight, infection, and allergies along with the presence of metabolic and immunological biomarkers of a deteriorated health status. A further objective of the AFINOS Study is to assess the health status and lifestyle habits of an adolescent population in an effort to identify any protective factors that could be used as preventive measures, since many chronic diseases and their associated co-morbidities often persist from adolescence into adulthood. ; Methods This study was conducted as three separate sub-studies in three different populations as follows: (a) Study 1 was performed on a population sample of adolescents; (b) Study 2 on the adolescents' parents; and (c) Study 3 on a subset of the adolescents from Study 1. Study 1 assessed health and lifestyle indicators through a questionnaire administered to a representative sample of adolescents from the Madrid Region (n = 2400) aged 13 to 16 years. In Study 2, the parents of the teenagers participating in Study 1 were required to fill out a questionnaire. Finally in Study 3, body composition, physical activity, health-related physical fitness, and blood measurements were determined in a subset (n = 200) of the individuals included in Study 1. ; Discussion This paper describes the rationale, design, and methodologies used in the AFINOS Study. This multidisciplinary, multicenter study seeks to evaluate several aspects of existing relationships between routine physical activity/sedentary behaviour and several health status markers, specifically those related to the immune system. The results of this cross-sectional study will serve for comparisons with the available data obtained in laboratory settings and in adults. In addition, knowledge regarding the health status and lifestyle habits of Spanish adolescents and their parents will be useful for designing preventive measures. ; The AFINOS Study is supported by grant DEP2006-56184-C03-01-02-03/PREV from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and co-funded by FEDER funds from European Union. DMG was supported by a scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science AP2006-02464. ; Peer reviewed

AbstractBackgroundThe aim of this study was to examine the bidirectional longitudinal associations of several markers of fatness and physical fitness in adolescents with Down syndrome.MethodsThis study comprised a total of 111 adolescents (41 females), aged from 11 to 20 years with complete data at the baseline. We had a drop‐out of <10% from the baseline to the 2‐year follow‐up. The ALPHA health‐related fitness test battery for youth was used.ResultsOur results show that all fatness variables at the baseline were associated with a 2‐year change in cardiorespiratory fitness (βranging from −0.32 to −0.38; allp < .05), but not with muscular and motor fitness (p > .05). However, no associations were found between physical fitness components as predictors and fatness indicators (p > .05).ConclusionsResults suggest that reducing fatness during adolescence might represent a modifiable factor to improve cardiorespiratory fitness at the 2‐year follow‐up, but notvice versasince associations were not bidirectional.