The present study indicated that sex, skin color, and school system moderated the relationship between LTPA and cMetS in schoolchildren from southern Brazil. Among male adolescents, non-white skin color, and students from the municipal school system, there is a linear reduction in cardiometabolic risk according to the increase in weekly minutes of PA, with a more accentuated reduction from about 90 min per week of LTPA, with an observable dose-response.
Regarding gender, the result that only the male sex was shown to influence the relationship between LTPA and cMetS may be explained by two main aspects. First, the biological differences of sex in body composition can influence health risk factors, in which while girls develop more total body fat and have a small gain in lean mass at this stage of life, boys have greater development of lean muscle mass and total, with little increase in body fat [23]. This difference can lead to cardiometabolic risk becoming more expressive among girls, in line with what was shown in the evaluated sample, in which, regardless of the time of LTPA, girls show a higher average of cMetS. Second, the girls’ behavioral aspects are also more favorable to the development of risk factors, considering that it has been shown that Brazilian girls have a higher occurrence of health risk behavior [24,25,26], including among these are the fact that they are more inactive than boys [2, 27,28,29]. Furthermore, the sexes can show divergent physiological responses to physical activity, with boys showing more positive responses to health concerning moderate and vigorous-intensity activities [30], in addition to the fact that boys present higher levels of PA at these intensities [31,32,33,34]. These sexual differences in PA practice can also be due to biological factors, in which the growth spurt and pubertal maturation can influence the interests and habits of boys and girls [35] but sociocultural factors seem to exert the greatest influence. The social roles assigned to gender influence the choice of girls and boys; and girls are raised with less freedom, with greater family restrictions and concerns about safety [36, 37], factors that interfere in the choices and opportunities for leisure practices. All of these factors can influence the relationship of LTPA with cardiometabolic risk and help to understand the gender differences in this association.
Moderation in skin color was also observed, with a linear reduction between LTPA and risk occurring in non-white adolescents. Biological and economic aspects can explain this moderation. White youth tend to have a higher percentage of body fat, especially visceral fat, than black youth, and visceral fat presents a higher risk for metabolic diseases [23]. In addition, a previous study with schoolchildren in the city showed that those who declared themselves black, mulatto, or brown had longer telomere length, a factor that has been pointed out to help explain the ethnic differences in disease risks [38]. Shorter telomeres have been associated with increased body mass index, adiposity, visceral fat accumulation, and other metabolic factors [39]. In addition, active individuals, regardless of the intensity of physical activity, have greater telomere length compared to inactive individuals, indicating the importance of physical activity in reducing oxidative stress and inflammation that affect telomeres [40]. Therefore, this may be a plausible biological explanation to explain higher cMetS levels among white adolescents in the evaluated sample, regardless of the weekly duration of the LTPA and the influence of skin color on the relationship between LTPA and cardiometabolic risk.
Regarding the economic factor, in Brazil, skin color is an important marker of economic inequality, especially disfavoring blacks [41]. It is known that less favorable economic conditions can hinder access to the practice of LTPA. Furthermore, skin color can be related not only to economic conditions but also to other aspects that may contribute to LTPA disparities, such as aspects related to segregation [42]. Also, data from the National Health Survey of Brazil showed that less healthy habits are associated with non-white skin color [43, 44]. Thus, due to the possible set of less healthy lifestyle habits identified among the non-white population, adolescents with this characteristic who practice some LTPA may have a greater potential for change in cardiometabolic risk in response to PA, which may explain the relationship of LTPA with reduced cardiometabolic risk only in this group.
Our results also demonstrated a moderating role of the school system, suggesting that among municipal school students, a linear relationship is observed between the weekly minutes of LTPA and the reduction in cardiometabolic risk. In this context, it is important to note that students from municipal schools had higher cMetS, regardless of time spent in LTPA. We hypothesize that the moderating role found for the municipal school system may be associated with cultural and behavioral aspects of the environment in which these adolescents are inserted. In addition, the municipal education network can be considered an economic marker of students, since in Brazil attending public school is associated with a lower family income [24]. Thus, perhaps the practice opportunities are associated with the school context, with fewer opportunities for PA and extracurricular sports. The relationship between participation in extracurricular activities and higher levels of PA is demonstrated in the literature [45], and studies have pointed out the influence of the school environment on adolescents’ physical activity [46]. However, this hypothesis still needs to be confirmed by further studies.
In addition to PA, other factors such as diet, less healthy lifestyle habits, and health information may be associated with the economic relationship of the school network. In addition, another study realized the same population observed that children and adolescents of the municipal school presented more prevalence of worse cardiorespiratory fitness levels compared with students of private schools [47]. It is also important to point out among the results observed that precisely in the educational network that showed higher average metabolic risk scores, the increase in time spent on LTPA was related to the reduction in risk. This factor is relevant and demonstrates the importance of employing interventions aimed at making students more active, especially in this more vulnerable group and that presents a more evident metabolic risk.
Although it was not observed, a moderating role of economic status, skin color, and educational system are variables that are strongly influenced by economic factors and that played a moderating role in the present study. We hypothesize that the lack of association for the economic status may be due to the economic index being a more subjective and specific measure, in which the quantity of material goods is considered, while skin color and the educational network are broader factors that encompass cultural, environmental, and behavioral factors and not just economic conditions.
The inverse relationship of PA with cardiometabolic risk indicators in adolescents has already been reported in the literature [8, 9, 48,49,50,51]. This relationship observed in the young population alerts to the early occurrence of comorbidities related to physical inactivity and that, in the case of modifiable behavior, could be avoided. Evidence of a decline in PA levels among young people warns of the importance of interventions in the area [28]. In addition, the existing evidence that PA in childhood and adolescence influences the health and practice of PA in adulthood [52] reinforces the importance of encouraging PA practice among the young population.
Furthermore, the study showed that in between boys, non-whites, and students from municipal schools, the greater strength of association is observed after approximately 90 min per week of LTPA, with a more marked reduction in cardiometabolic risk as the weekly minutes of LTPA increase, demonstrating a dose-response relationship. Corroborating our findings, a systematic review indicated a dose-response relationship between PA and health benefits, in which as PA increases, the better the individuals’ health conditions [53]. However, the study demonstrated that even modest amounts of PA can bring positive health outcomes in at-risk youth, such as the obese [53]. Another study also demonstrated an improvement in the cardiometabolic risk profile over time, as the time allocated for PA increased [54].
The World Health Organization recommends that adolescents perform at least 60 min/day of moderate and vigorous PA, which corresponds to a weekly sum of 420 min [55]. In that regard, our results may indicate that doing some PA, even not meeting the recommendations, maybe enough to promote cardiometabolic health. Previous evidence has shown that remaining physically active, even without meeting PA guidelines, is relevant for preventing cardiometabolic risk in this population [6, 7]. In this context, although the evidence of a favorable relationship between PA and cardiometabolic risk is more consistent and robust concerning moderate and vigorous PA, less intense PA also demonstrates benefits [50, 56]. In addition, all PA patterns are beneficial, whether performed in sporadic or continuous sessions, in different contexts, settings, and intensities [50, 56]. Thus, when thinking about PA in a context of health promotion and prevention of cardiometabolic risk, every activity is important, in which PA can be accumulated in small doses throughout the day to obtain health benefits, which meets the highlights of the new WHO guidelines that recommend that “all movement is important” [55].
One of the main limitations of this study is that the evaluation of LTPA through a questionnaire, limiting the assessment to the time of practice and not measuring the intensity. In addition, it is known that this method of evaluation is limited by temporality, memory bias of respondents, social desirability, and classification errors. However, the evaluation of PA by questionnaire is widely accepted in population studies, and, our sample is probably accurate to support our results. As with any cross-sectional study, it is not possible to attribute causality to the association observed between insufficient physical activity and cardiometabolic risk, although it seems more biologically plausible that insufficient physical activity precedes metabolic risk. In addition, our PA measures were limited to LTPA, not considering activities performed in other domains, such as physical education classes and commuting. Even though various confounding factors have been controlled in the analyses, the possibility of residual confusion exists, due to other factors not included.
The analysis of the moderation used allowed highlighting different categories of time spent in LTPA, unlike the categories usually used based on recommendations. As far as we know, our study is the first to use this type of moderation analysis to assess the influence of biological and socioeconomic factors on the relationship between LTPA and cardiometabolic risk in middle-income countries. As a strong point, the present study presents a representative and accurate sample of adolescents from a city in the interior from southern Brazil, differing from most of the studies conducted in capitals and large centers. In addition, it includes students from all education networks. The use of a continuous risk score to assess cardiometabolic risk should be highlighted. There is evidence indicating that a cluster cardiometabolic risk score is more relevant to future health than risk factors assessed individually [20, 57]. It is suggested that future studies will contrast the current findings, carrying out, for example, analyses with prospective data that can help to clarify and infer causality in the observed associations, using objective measures of PA, allowing to measure the intensity. Furthermore, studies with lifestyle interventions can help confirm whether, when practice levels are increased, cardiometabolic risk can be reduced.