Percentiles of body mass index and waist circumference for Costa Rican children and adolescents.

Introduction: body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) are anthropometric indicators used to define overweight/obesity and to predict the risk of cardiovascular disease, respectively, in adolescents and children. Objectives: to describe and provide estimations of BMI and WC distribution according to percentiles in a sample of Costa Rican students, and to test group differences at the 50th percentile with the international references by the National Center for Health Statistics of the United States of America in 2012, 2016 and 2021. Material and methods: a cross-sectional and descriptive study was carried out with 2,684 students from 7 to 17 years of age in 64 educational centers of Costa Rica.

New Diet Quality Index for children and adolescents in Costa Rica.

Introduction: there is an increasing interest in the study of total diet quality indicators through the study of food groups in certain dietary patterns. Objective: to analyze the diet of students in Costa Rica with construction of a contextualized new diet quality index. Material and methods: a cross-sectional study was performed in a population of 2,677 students from 64 educational centers.

Components of the metabolic syndrome among a sample of overweight and obese Costa Rican schoolchildren.

Background: The term "pediatric metabolic syndrome" includes a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors such as insulin resistance, dyslipidemia (including increased triglycerides and decreased HDL cholesterol), hypertension, and obesity in children. No studies have been performed on this syndrome in a pediatric population in Costa Rica.

Objective: To establish the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its components in 8- to 10-year-old prepuberal overweight and obese schoolchildren.

Prevalence of mild serum vitamin B(12) deficiency in rural and urban Costa Rican young adults.

Objective: Recent studies have shown an increase of mild serum cobalamin (vitamin B(12)) deficiency in some Latin American countries; however, no data are available from Costa Rica. The purpose of this work was to establish the prevalence of serum vitamin B(12) deficiency among Costa Rican young adults and to study some factors that may help explain the serum cobalamin concentrations.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 400 adults aged 20 to 40 years old from urban and rural areas of the central valley of Costa Rica to determine serum vitamin B(12) levels.

[Serum total homocysteine and lipoproteins levels in young adults from urban and rural areas of Costa Rica].

Serum total homocysteine and lipoproteins levels in young adults from urban and rural areas of Costa Rica. This study evaluated the lipid profile and the serum levels of total homocysteine of 400 adults aged 20 to 40 years, residents of rural and urban areas of the central valley of Costa Rica. The results showed that the proportion of subjects from urban areas with high levels of LDL-C (= 4.

Genetic, dietary, and other lifestyle determinants of serum homocysteine levels in young adults in Costa Rica.

Objective: Elevated serum total homocysteine (tHcy) is considered an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The objective of this study was to develop the first-ever information on the prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia and its determinants in a population in Costa Rica.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine serum levels of tHcy, vitamin B(12), folate, and creatinine, as well as the presence of the genotype TT for the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) enzyme.