Will my child get fat?Development of a tool for predicting obesity in adults before the age of 5
Aug 22, 2025
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Through this, it is expected that parents can intervene early and use it to form children's obesity prevention habits.
More than 600 scientists from around the world participated in the development of the genetic test, and more than 5 million people were analyzed to create a race-specific 'polygenic risk score'. This score is a method of predicting the likelihood of becoming obese in adulthood by summing up thousands of obesity-related genetic mutations.
Genetic epidemiologist Roelof Smit from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark "The strength of this score is that a child can predict the risk of adult obesity before he or she is 5 years old. Intervention at this point can have a major impact." he said.
To date, this tool has shown very effective results in some groups.
For European races, the score could explain about 17.6% of the risk of obesity.
Dr. Roy Kim, a pediatric endocrinologist, said "This is a fairly strong obesity risk indicator, but much of it is still unknown.' In other words, more than 80% of the risk of obesity is still determined by other factors such as living environment, eating habits, and exercise.
Nevertheless, this gene score was found to be about twice as effective as the obesity prediction method currently used by medical staff. However, in non-European races, predictability has declined significantly. For example, in rural Uganda, Africa, the score accounted for only 2.2% of obesity risk.
The researchers analyzed that this gap stems from the genetic diversity of the African population and the lack of diversity of genetic information used to develop tools.
In fact, 71.1% of the 5 million people used in the analysis were European, with only 14.4% American, 8.4% East Asian, 4.6% African, and 1.5% South Asian.
The researchers also analyzed how genetic obesity predispositions affect weight loss efforts.
As a result, the higher the genetic risk, the greater the effect on lifestyle improvements such as diet and exercise, but if these efforts were stopped, the more likely they were to gain weight again.
This shows that genetic predisposition to obesity is not insurmountable, and at the same time emphasizes the importance of maintaining long-term health habits, the researchers said. The findings were recently published in the international journal Nature Medicine.
Meanwhile, as of 2022, the percentage of overweight children and adolescents in Korea is 43.0% for male students and 24.6% for female students.
This is the highest number among the four East Asian countries, including China, Japan, and Taiwan, and the lowest normal weight ratio.
Experts emphasize that early management is essential because childhood and adolescent obesity is likely to lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease in adulthood and can also cause emotional problems such as depression and low self-esteem.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
