ISSN 1662-4009 (online)

ESPE Yearbook of Paediatric Endocrinology (2018) 15 11.21 | DOI: 10.1530/ey.15.11.21

ESPEYB15 11 Obesity and Weight Regulation Diet and the genes (1 abstracts)

11.21 Improving adherence to healthy dietary patterns, genetic risk, and long term weight gain: gene-diet interaction analysis in two prospective cohort studies

Wang T , Heianza Y , Sun D , Huang T , Ma W , Rimm EB , Manson JE , Hu FB , Willett WC & Qi L


Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA


To read the full abstract: BMJ. 2018 Jan 10;360:j5644

On the basis of scientific evidence and dietary recommendations, several diet quality scores have been developed to evaluate the healthfulness of dietary patterns. Previous studies show that improvement in adherence to healthy dietary patterns is associated with less weight gain (2, 3, 4). But, until now, no study had assessed the interaction between changes in adherence to healthy dietary patterns over time and genetic susceptibility to obesity on long term weight gain. Here, Wang et al. show that people with higher genetic predisposition to obesity seem more susceptible to the favorable effects of improving diet quality on weight management. This supports treatment programmes aiming at improving dietary patterns and contradicts the perception that obesity due to a high genetic predisposition has a poor prognosis. Therefore, it seems important to improve adherence to healthy diets to prevent weight gain, particularly in people genetically predisposed to obesity. However, the question remains: how can we effectively motivate and support overweight and obese patients to improve their adherence to a healthy diet?

1. Wang T, Huang T, Heianza Y, et al. Genetic Susceptibility, Change in Physical Activity, and Long-term Weight Gain. Diabetes 2017;66:2704-12. 10.2337/db17-0071

2. Fung TT, Pan A, Hou T, et al. Long-term change in diet quality is associated with body weight change in men and women. J Nutr 2015;145:1850-6. 10.3945/jn.114.208785

3. Tobias DK, Zhang C, Chavarro J, et al. Healthful dietary patterns and long-term weight change among women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus. Int J Obes (Lond) 2016;40:1748-53. 10.1038/ijo.2016.156

4. Cespedes Feliciano EM, Tinker L, Manson JE, et al. Change in Dietary Patterns and Change in Waist Circumference and DXA Trunk Fat Among Postmenopausal Women. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2016;24:2176-84. 10.1002/oby.21589