Weight gain during adulthood may vary based on obesity phenotypes during adolescence
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
SAN DIEGO — Adolescents with overweight or obesity may have different degrees of weight gain during adulthood based on their obesity phenotype, according to findings presented at ObesityWeek 2022.
Researchers categorized adolescents with overweight or obesity into one of four subtypes. Ruth St. Fleur, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate in the department of epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health, and Alison Field, ScD, professor in department of epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health, said focusing on obesity phenotypes may allow more targeted therapy in the future.
“We need to move toward thinking about types of obesity,” St. Fleur and Field told Healio. “We found that among youth who were classified as having overweight or obesity based on their weight status, there were four different types of obesity. What caused their obesity could differ, and they might benefit from different treatment approaches.”
The researchers collected data from adolescents aged 14 to 19 years who participated in the Growing Up Today Study, a long-term investigation of the influence of diet and exercise on weight from childhood through adulthood. Weight for both adolescents and their mothers; reports of disordered eating behaviors, body image, weight concerns and depressive symptoms; and pubertal timing were included in a latent class analysis to identify obesity subtypes. Separate analyses were conducted for boys and girls. Researchers analyzed associations between the identified subtypes and adult weight gain from age 20 to 35 years.
Researchers identified four obesity subtypes for girls and three for boys. Of the girls included in the study, 27% were placed in a high weight concern subtype, 12% were placed in an early puberty subtype, 11% were categorized in an obesity in mothers subtype, and 50% were placed in a mixed subtype. Of boys, 12% were placed in an obesity in mothers subtype, 10% fell into the high weight concerns subtype and 78% were in the mixed subtype.
Adult weight gain differed by subtype. Among obesity phenotypes for girls, those in the obesity in mothers group had the highest weight gain of any phenotype (beta = 7 kg; 95% CI, 5.1-8.9). Girls in the early puberty subgroup had the second highest weight gain in adulthood (beta = 3.8 kg; 95% CI, 2-5.6). Among subtypes for boys, the weight concerns obesity group had the greatest adult weight gain (beta = 4.8 kg; 95% CI, 2.5-7).
St. Fleur and Field said they hope to use the findings to explore whether obesity treatment can be tailored to specific phenotypes to improve outcomes.
“At this stage, we are trying to identify the subtypes of obesity and see if they are similar across age group, race and sex assigned at birth,” St. Fleur and Field said. “We plan to use these findings to examine whether the different subtypes of obesity respond differently to obesity treatment strategies.”
In future research, St. Fleur and Field said their team plans to analyze obesity subtypes among children and adolescents across racial-ethnic groups as well as whether subtypes are associated with genetic risk scores for obesity.
Collapse
St. Fleur RG, et al. O-024. Presented at: ObesityWeek; Nov. 1-4, 2022; San Diego.
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts