Obesity in children can more than double their risk of developing multiple sclerosis, warns a new study.
New research has shown that having obesity in childhood is associated with developing the incurable autoimmune disease in later life. Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is a condition that can affect the brain and spinal cord, causing a wide range of potential symptoms, including problems with vision, arm or leg movement, sensation or balance.
The condition is about two to three times more common in women than men and is one of the most common causes of disability in younger adults. A new study, to be presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity in Venice, Italy, suggests a link between high BMI in adolescence and an increased risk of MS.
The team studied 21,661 patients aged two to 19 years old with obesity enrolled in the Swedish Childhood Obesity Treatment Register (BORIS) between 1995 2020. They then had a follow up check-in after a median of 5.6 years, corresponding to a median age of 20.8 years. During follow-up, 0.13 per cent of the obesity group had developed MS, whereas the corresponding number in the general population was 0.06 per cent.
They also discovered that incidence rate of MS per 100,000 people was 19.3 in the obesity cohort, compared with 8.3 in the general population. Analyses adjusted for presence of hereditary MS revealed that the risk of developing MS was over 2.3 times higher in the paediatric obesity cohort.
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The mean age of MS diagnosis was comparable between the groups; 23.4 years in the obesity cohort versus 22.8 years in the general population comparators. Professor Claude Marcus from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, said: "Despite the limited follow-up time, our findings highlight that obesity in childhood is associated with an increased susceptibility of early-onset MS more than two-fold. 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.
"Understanding these pathways is crucial for developing targeted prevention and intervention strategies to normalise the risk for MS in children and adolescents with obesity."
Associate Professor Emilia Hagman added: "There are several studies showing that MS has increased over several decades and obesity is believed to be one major driver for this increase. Thanks to our prospective study design, we can confirm this theory. Even though the risk for MS is more than double among children and adolescence with obesity, the absolute risk for MS remains lower than for many other comorbidities associated with obesity.
"Nevertheless, our study adds to the evidence that obesity in early life increases the risk for a plethora of diseases including MS, and not only the well-known cardiometabolic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes."
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