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Obese adolescent girls face higher multiple sclerosis risk
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Obese children and teenage girls may be at increased risk for developing multiple sclerosis or clinically isolated syndrome, according to study results published in Neurology. However, this association was not found in boys.
Overweight girls’ risk for developing multiple sclerosis (MS) or clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) was 1.5 times higher than that in those who were not overweight (OR=1.58; 95% CI, 0.71-3.5). The OR was 1.78 for moderately obese girls vs. those of normal weight (95% CI, 0.7-4.49) and 3.76 in extremely obese girls (95% CI, 1.54-9.16).
“Over the last 30 years, childhood obesity has tripled,” study researcher Annette Langer-Gould, MD, PhD, of the department of research and evaluation at Kaiser Permanente Southern California and a member of the American Academy of Neurology, said in a press release. “In our study, the risk of pediatric MS was highest among moderately and extremely obese teenage girls, suggesting that the rate of pediatric MS cases is likely to increase as the childhood obesity epidemic continues.”
Langer-Gould and colleagues identified 75 children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 years diagnosed with pediatric MS and compared them with 913,097 children without MS, according to the release. Researchers obtained BMI data from before symptoms appeared. All participants were grouped according to weight class: normal weight, overweight, moderate obesity and extreme obesity.
One-half of children with MS (50.6%) were overweight or obese vs. 36.6% of those without MS.
“Even though pediatric MS remains rare, our study suggests that parents or caregivers of obese teenagers should pay attention to symptoms such as tingling and numbness or limb weakness, and bring them to a doctor’s attention,” Langer-Gould said.
Disclosure: Langer-Gould is site principal investigator for two industry-sponsored phase 3 clinical trials (Biogen Idec; Hoffmann-LaRoche).
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