Reciprocal relations of pubertal and metabolic status and their impact on cognitive development in early adolescence

• Autor(a) principal: Freitas, Rafaella Sales de [UNIFESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNIFESP
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.unifesp.br/xmlui/handle/11600/62140; https://sucupira.capes.gov.br/sucupira/public/consultas/coleta/trabalhoConclusao/viewTrabalhoConclusao.jsf?popup=true&id_trabalho=9759925
• topic: Puberty; Metabolic Status; Cognitive development; Intelligence measures; Adolescence

Pubertal onset and progression are endocrine-gated energy-demanding processes dependent on the metabolic status with differences among sexes. Both puberty (through hormonal signaling, pubertal timing and tempo), metabolism and nutritional status, apart from sociocultural factors (socioeconomic status, parental influence), are individually associated with cognitive performance, but their combined role on cognitive development is unclear. Objective: to investigate, in a cross-sectional study including typically developing 9 to 15-year-old boys and girls, the relation between pubertal and metabolic status on cognitive maturation. Methods: 278 (166 girls; mean ± SD age: 12.63 ± 1.79 years) adolescents participated in the study. They completed the Wechsler Abbreviated Intelligence Scale (WASI) subtests - Block Design and Vocabulary - as measures of cognitions that indicate non-verbal and verbal intelligence, respectively, and filled in scales to assess pubertal status (self-assessed Tanner stages and the Pubertal Developmental Scale, PDS). For objective measurement of puberty biomarkers, saliva was collected to determine testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) concentrations. Metabolic status was assessed by lipid profile and glycated hemoglobin, determined using capillary blood, blood pressure and anthropometric data. Correlation matrixes among the pubertal and metabolic factors were used to propose latent factors that were confirmed using Confirmatory Factor Analyses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to describe the associations between the latent factors and cognition, controlled for socioeconomic status and age. Results: The resulting pubertal latent factor (combining measures of self-assessed gonadal and adrenal Tanner stagings, DHEA-S concentrations and participant- and guardian-rated scores in the PDS), controlled for age, was related to the metabolic status latent factor (body mass index, percentage of body fat, waist/height ratio, triglycerides and systolic blood pressure) in girls only, but did not relate to the cognitive outcomes. Differently, more advanced pubertal status was positively associated with performance in both intelligence markers in boys and girls. Conclusions: Pubertal maturational stage is related to metabolic status only in girls and to cognitive development independently of age and metabolic status in both sexes.