Childhood obesity linked with higher risk of adults getting multiple sclerosis

Obesity in childhood is associated with a more than doubling of the risk of later developing multiple sclerosis, new research shows.

The research, to be presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity in Venice in May, comes as emerging evidence has indicated there is a link between high BMI in adolescence and an increased risk of multiple sclerosis.

The study is by Professor Claude Marcus andAssociate ProfessorEmilia Hagman of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and colleagues.

The authors aimed to prospectively evaluate the risk of developing multiple sclerosis in a large cohort of patients with paediatric obesity compared with the general population.

They included patients aged two to 19 with obesity enrolled in the Swedish Childhood Obesity Treatment Register (BORIS) between 1995 and 2020 and a matched comparison group from the general population.

Matching criteria included sex, year of birth and geography. Exclusion criteria were secondary obesity and genetic syndromes and MS diagnosis before 15 years.

Individuals were followed from obesity treatment initiation, or from 15 years of age if treatment was started earlier, until MS diagnosis, death or emigration, whichever came first.

The data was taken from 21,661 paediatric obesity patients with a median age of obesity treatment initiation of 11.4 years.

The studysays the crude incidence rate of multiple sclerosis per 100,000 in the obesity cohort was 19.3.

The incidence per 100,000 in the general population was 8.3. This was adjusted for heredity factors.

This represents a risk difference of 2.3 times higher for the obesity group, which the researcher said was statistically significant.

The mean age was comparable between the groups; 23.4 years in the obesity cohort versus 22.8 in the general population.

The authors said: “Despite the limited follow-up time, our findings highlight that obesity in childhood is associated with an increased susceptibility of early-onset multiple sclerosis more than twofold.

“Given paediatric obesity is prevalent, it is likely to serve as a critical etiological contributor to the escalating prevalence of multiple sclerosis.

“Paediatric obesity is associated with several autoimmune diseases and the leading hypothesis is that the persistent low-grade inflammatory state, typically observed in obesity, is mediating the association.”

“Paediatric obesity is associated with several autoimmune diseases”