Impact of Body Mass Index on the Age of Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis Onset: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

A BACKROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex chronic disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Body mass index (BMI), a component of metabolic syndrome (MetS), is considered among the risk factors for MS. However, its role in MS remains ambiguous. OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of BMI on the age of onset in patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) in a Greek cohort. METHODS: Data from 821 Greek patients with RRMS were collected. The BMI values were considered as quartiles. Comparisons for the demographic characteristics between the quartiles were made by Pearson’s chi-square test for the categorical variables and by ANOVA for the continuous variables. An overall p-value was calculated corresponding to trend for association. In case of significant association, further post-hoc analysis was performed in order to identify differences in demographic characteristics between specific BMI quartiles groups. Linear regression analyses were used to assess the relationship between BMI and age at onset of MS. RESULTS: Comparisons of participant characteristics by quartiles of BMI revealed that participants with the highest BMI had an older age of disease onset. Results from linear regression analysis showed that with each increase of 1 BMI unit, the age of RRMS onset increases by 0.255 (95% CI 0.136 to 0.374) years, p < 0.001. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with higher BMI, as a parameter of MetS, exhibit increased age of RRMS onset. Our results may present an alternative personalized approach for diagnosis, prognosis, and/or prevention of RRMS.

Lifestyle and health of individuals with multiple sclerosis according to body mass index: initial results

“…In the overweight and obese group, MS was diagnosed on average 3-4 years later than in the normal-weight group. This difference is also consistent with the results obtained in other studies, even though it did not reach the level of statistical significance [28].…”

The age at onset of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis has increased over the last five decades

“…There is an established association between a high body mass index in the early years of life and the risk of MS (Hedström et al, 2014). However, the relationship between body mass index and age at onset is not clear given the conflicting findings reported in the literature (Kavak et al, 2015;Siokas et al, 2021).…”