Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Feb 5;80(6):548-52.
doi: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e31828154f3. Epub 2013 Jan 30.

Childhood obesity and risk of pediatric multiple sclerosis and clinically isolated syndrome

Annette Langer-Gould  1 , Sonu M Brara, Brandon E Beaber, Corinna Koebnick
Affiliations

Childhood obesity and risk of pediatric multiple sclerosis and clinically isolated syndrome

Annette Langer-Gould et al. Neurology. .

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether childhood obesity is a risk factor for developing pediatric multiple sclerosis (MS) or clinically isolated syndrome (CIS).

Methods: Cases were identified through the Kaiser Permanente Southern California (KPSC) pediatric acquired demyelinating diseases cohort between 2004 and 2010. For cases, body mass index (BMI) was obtained prior to symptom onset, for the underlying cohort BMI was obtained through the KPSC Children's health study (n = 913,097). Weight classes of normal weight, overweight, moderate obesity, and extreme obesity were assigned based on BMI specific for age and sex.

Results: We identified 75 newly diagnosed pediatric cases of MS or CIS, the majority of which were in girls (n = 41, 55%), age 11-18 (n = 54, 72%). Obesity was associated with a significantly increased risk of MS/CIS in girls (p = 0.005 for trend) but not in boys (p = 0.93). The adjusted odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals for CIS/MS among girls was 1.58 (0.71-3.50) for overweight compared to normal weight (reference category), 1.78 (0.70-4.49) for moderately obese, and 3.76 (1.54-9.16) for extremely obese. Moderately and extremely obese cases were more likely to present with transverse myelitis compared with normal/overweight children (p = 0.003).

Conclusion: Our findings suggest the childhood obesity epidemic is likely to lead to increased morbidity from MS/CIS, particularly in adolescent girls.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure
Figure. Association between weight class and pediatric multiple sclerosis/clinically isolated syndrome by sex
Depicted are the adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of pediatric multiple sclerosis and clinically isolated syndrome (MS/CIS) with increasing weight class compared with normal/underweight children (reference category) stratified by sex. Increasing weight class was associated with increasingly higher OR for MS/CIS among girls (p for trend <0.005) but not boys (p for trend 0.93). OR are adjusted for age at onset and race/ethnicity.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Langer-Gould A, Zhang JL, Chung J, Yeung Y, Waubant E, Yao J. Incidence of acquired CNS demyelinating syndromes in a multiethnic cohort of children. Neurology 2011;77:1143–1148 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Calder PC, Ahluwalia N, Brouns F, et al. Dietary factors and low-grade inflammation in relation to overweight and obesity. Br J Nutr 2011;106(suppl 3):S5–S78 - PubMed
    1. Munger KL, Chitnis T, Ascherio A. Body size and risk of MS in two cohorts of US women. Neurology 2009;73:1543–1550 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hedstrom AK, Olsson T, Alfredsson L. High body mass index before age 20 is associated with increased risk for multiple sclerosis in both men and women. Mult Scler 2012;18:1334–1336 - PubMed
    1. Koebnick C, Smith N, Coleman KJ, et al. Prevalence of extreme obesity in a multiethnic cohort of children and adolescents. J Pediatr 2010;157:26–31 - PMC - PubMed

Publication types