Polygenic Score for Body Mass Index Is Associated with Disordered Eating in a General Population Cohort

Mohamed Abdulkadir; Moritz Herle; Bianca L De Stavola; Christopher Hübel; Diana L Santos Ferreira; Ruth J F Loos; Rachel Bryant-Waugh; Cynthia M Bulik; Nadia Micali

doi:10.3390/jcm9041187

Polygenic Score for Body Mass Index Is Associated with Disordered Eating in a General Population Cohort

J Clin Med. 2020 Apr 21;9(4):1187. doi: 10.3390/jcm9041187.

Authors

Mohamed Abdulkadir¹, Moritz Herle^{2

3}, Bianca L De Stavola², Christopher Hübel^{4

5

6}, Diana L Santos Ferreira^{7

8}, Ruth J F Loos⁹, Rachel Bryant-Waugh¹⁰, Cynthia M Bulik^{6

11

12}, Nadia Micali^{1

2

13}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland.
² Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London WC1N 1EH, UK.
³ Department of Biostatistics & Health Informatics, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London SE5 8AB, UK.
⁴ Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, UK.
⁵ UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre, South London and Maudsley Hospital, London SE5 8AF, UK.
⁶ Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.
⁷ Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2BN, UK.
⁸ Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PS, UK.
⁹ The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine, The Mindich Child Health and Development Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA.
¹⁰ Maudsley Centre for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders, Michael Rutter Centre for Children and Young People, Maudsley Hospital, London SE5 8AZ, UK.
¹¹ Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
¹² Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
¹³ Department of Pediatrics, Gynecology and Obstetrics, University of Geneva, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland.

Abstract

Disordered eating (DE) is common and is associated with body mass index (BMI). We investigated whether genetic variants for BMI were associated with DE. Methods: BMI polygenic scores (PGS) were calculated for participants of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC; N = 8654) and their association with DE tested. Data on DE behaviors (e.g., binge eating and compensatory behaviors) were collected at ages 14, 16, 18 years, and DE cognitions (e.g., body dissatisfaction) at 14 years. Mediation analyses determined whether BMI mediated the association between the BMI-PGS and DE. Results: The BMI-PGS was positively associated with fasting (OR = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.25, 1.61), binge eating (OR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.12, 1.46), purging (OR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.02, 1.42), body dissatisfaction (Beta = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.77, 1.22), restrained eating (Beta = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.10, 1.17), emotional eating (Beta = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.052, 0.38), and negatively associated with thin ideal internalization (Beta = -0.15, 95% CI = -0.23, -0.07) and external eating (Beta = -0.19, 95% CI = -0.30, -0.09). These associations were mainly mediated by BMI. Conclusions: Genetic variants associated with BMI are also associated with DE. This association was mediated through BMI suggesting that weight potentially sits on the pathway from genetic liability to DE.

Keywords: Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC); body mass index; disordered eating behaviors; disordered eating cognitions; polygenic scores.

Abstract

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