This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Genetic predisposition, environmental factors predict metabolically healthy obesity status
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Among children with obesity in China, about one-third can be classified as having metabolically healthy obesity, according to study data.
Metabolically healthy obesity status can be predicted with genetic predisposition and environmental factors as well as their interaction, researchers wrote.
Ming Li, MD, an endocrinologist at Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing, and colleagues evaluated data from the Beijing Children and Adolescents Metabolic Syndrome study on 1,213 children aged 6 to 18 years with BMI at least in the 95th percentile to determine the prevalence of metabolically healthy obesity and the environmental and genetic factors affecting metabolic status.
Insulin resistance and cardiometabolic risk were used to classify participants as metabolically healthy obese or metabolically unhealthy obese.
Among the cohort, 27.1% were classified as metabolically healthy obese based on cardiometabolic risk, 37.2% were classified as metabolically healthy obese based on insulin resistance, 14.9% were classified as both and 50.6% were metabolically unhealthy obese. Metabolically healthy obesity was strongly related with the markers of BMI, waist circumference, fat mass percentage and the presence of acanthosis nigricans (P < .02 for all). Under the cardiometabolic risk definition for metabolically healthy obesity, walking to school was the strongest environmental risk factor (P < .05), whereas the consumption of meat (P = .05) and soft drinks (P < .05), mother’s education level (P < .05), unemployed father (P < .05) and birth weight (P < .05) were the strongest environmental risk factors for metabolically healthy obesity defined by insulin resistance.
The genes KCNQ1-rs2237892 and KCNQ1-rs2237897 were significantly linked to metabolically healthy obesity (P < .05 for both). Multiplicative interactions between walking to school and KCNQ1-rs2237897 were linked to metabolically healthy obesity defined by cardiometabolic risk (OR = 1.31; 95% CI, 1.05-1.63); multiplicative interactions between consuming soft drinks and KCNQ1-rs2237892 were linked to metabolically healthy obesity defined by insulin resistance (OR = 0.8; 95% CI, 0.68-0.94).
“The increasing rate of pediatric obesity highlights the importance of distinguishing [metabolically healthy obesity] and [metabolically unhealthy obesity], which benefit the delivery of optimal health services for obesity management in a manner that is both efficient and effective,” the researchers wrote. – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts