Novel insights into the consequences of obesity: a phenotype-wide Mendelian randomization study

Obesity is thought to significantly impact the quality of life. In this study, we sought to evaluate the health consequences of obesity on the risk of a broad spectrum of human diseases. The causal effects of exposing to obesity on health outcomes were inferred using Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses using a fixed effects inverse-variance weighted model. The instrumental variables were SNPs associated with obesity as measured by body mass index (BMI) reported by GIANT consortium. The spectrum of outcome consisted of the phenotypes from published GWAS and the UK Biobank. The MR-Egger intercept test was applied to estimate horizontal pleiotropic effects, along with Cochran’s Q test to assess heterogeneity among the causal effects of instrumental variables. Our MR results confirmed many putative disease risks due to obesity, such as diabetes, dyslipidemia, sleep disorder, gout, smoking behaviors, arthritis, myocardial infarction, and diabetes-related eye disease. The novel findings indicated that elevated red blood cell count was inferred as a mediator of BMI-induced type 2 diabetes in our bidirectional MR analysis. Intriguingly, the effects that higher BMI could decrease the risk of both skin and prostate cancers, reduce calorie intake, and increase the portion size warrant further studies. Our results shed light on a novel mechanism of the disease-causing roles of obesity.

Feto-Maternal Consequences of Obesity in Pregnancy

Introduction: Potential ill effects of obesity in pregnancy pose a challenge encompassing many comorbidities that threaten the life and require special attention. Pregnancy is the most crucial event for women surrounded with multiple complexities. Obesity during pregnancy leads to life threatening events for mother as well as fetus. Purpose of the present study was to identify the feto-maternal outcomes of obesity during pregnancy. Methodology: An observational cross-section design was used. Non-probability convenient sampling was done to collect data from 170 women. Data related to predominated maternal problem during pregnancy and fetus birth was collected. Ethical considerations were followed. Data was analyzed through SPSS (version 24.0). Results: Findings revealed multiple consequences of obesity on both mother and fetus. Obesity was considered as a mainstay of feto-maternal complications and findings revealed a significant association (p-value <0.05). Conclusion: Obesity is a signal for many adverse feto-maternal outcomes during pregnancy that poses a challenge for both mother and fetus. It is concluded from this study that there is ample need to educate mothers regarding the hazardous consequences of obesity in pregnancy. Keywords: Fetus, Maternal, Consequences, Obesity, Pregnancy

The Psychological Consequences of Obesity in Adolescent Girls: A Causal-Comparative Study

Background: Adolescent obesity has been a major concern in numerous studies in terms of the prevention, adjustment of the underlying factors, and assessment of the physical and psychological consequences in recent decades. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the psychological consequences of obesity in adolescent girls. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted using the causal-comparative on all the first- and second-year high school girls in the academic year 2019 in Shahrekord Province, Iran. In total, 346 individuals were selected via multistage random cluster sampling for the normal students and purposive sampling for the obese students. Data were collected using Children’s depression inventory (CDI), Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and Ryff’s psychological wellbeing (PWB) scales. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 23 using the multivariate analysis of covariance. Results: The obese students had higher CDI scores and lower scores in the Rosenberg self-esteem scale and PWB compared to the normal students, with a significant difference in this regard (P < 0.001). Conclusions: According to the results, the variables of CDI, Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and PWB could be considered in the outcomes of obese adolescent girls. Therefore, psychological interventions are recommended for the minimization of these consequences.