A new genetic test predicts obesity before the start of kindergarten

The world’s obesity union expects more than half of the world’s population to be overweight or obese over 2035. However, treatment strategies such as changing lifestyle, surgery and medicines are not available globally or effectively.

By relying on genetic data from more than five million people, an international team of researchers created an a measure called the PGS (PGS) degree associated with adulthood obesity and shows consistent and founded patterns in early childhood. Results can help identify children and adolescents with a higher genetic risk of obesity in subsequent life, who can benefit from targeted preventive strategies, such as lifestyle interventions, at a younger age.

“What makes the result is very strong is the consistency of the connections between the genetic result and the body mass index before the age of five and until adulthood – a timing begins a long time before other risk factors begin to form their weight later in childhood,” said assistant professor Rilov at the University of Copenhagen. Nature Medicine.

Effective weakness in obesity, such as the best next way

Define changes in people’s genomics can have a real impact on health when working together. Thousands of genetic variables that increase the risk of obesity have been identified, for example, the variables that work in the brain and affect appetite. PGS resembles a calculator that combines the effects of the different risk variables that a person carries and provides a total degree. PGS was able to explain approximately five (17 %) of a person’s contrast in the BMI – much higher than in previous studies.

To create this PGS, scientists have relied on genetic data for more than five million people – the largest and most diverse genetic data set ever – including genetic data from the genetic investigation of human features (giant), a consumer DNA test company, 23andme. Then the researchers tested whether the new PGS is related to obesity using data groups of physical and genetic properties of more than 500,000 people, including the body mass index data that it follows over time from children of the nineties. They found that their new PGS was more effective as the best way to predict a person’s danger than developing obesity.

“Obesity is a major issue of public health, with many factors that contribute to its development, including genetics, environment, lifestyle and behavior. These factors are likely to vary through a person’s life, and we believe that some of them arise in his childhood,” said Dr. Kaitlein Wadi, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Bristol and the second author in this paper.

“We have been pleased to contribute to children’s data in the 1990s in this exceptional and insight research in the genetic architecture of obesity. We hope this work will contribute to the discovery of individuals at a great risk of obesity at an early age, which can have a clinical and high health effect in the future.”

Genetics is not a fate

The research team has also investigated the relationship between a person’s genetic obesity and the effect of lifestyle losing interventions, such as diet and exercise. They discovered that people with a genetic risk higher than obesity were more responsive to interventions, but they also regained weight more quickly when the interventions ended.

Despite the use of the population’s genomics on a larger scale, the new PGS has its restrictions. For example, it was much better to predict obesity in people with more European origin than African people. This declares the need to do such a more active groups.