Associations between Blood Metabolic Profile at 7 Years Old and Eating Disorders in Adolescence: Findings from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children

• Published in: Metabolites Vol. 9; no. 9; p. 191
• Main Authors: Santos Ferreira, Diana L, Hübel, Christopher, Herle, Moritz, Abdulkadir, Mohamed, Loos, Ruth J F, Bryant-Waugh, Rachel, Bulik, Cynthia M, De Stavola, Bianca L, Lawlor, Deborah A, Micali, Nadia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 19-09-2019; MDPI
• Subjects: Adolescents; Age; ALSPAC; Anorexia; anorexia nervosa; Apolipoproteins; binge-eating disorder; Body mass index; Calories; Child development; Cholesterol; Docosahexaenoic acid; Eating disorders; EDTA-plasma; Fatty acids; Genomes; High density lipoprotein; Insulin; Linoleic acid; Lipids; Lipoproteins; Longitudinal studies; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Metabolism; metabolomics; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Particle size; Polyunsaturated fatty acids; Triglycerides; metabolomics; binge-eating disorder; ALSPAC; eating disorders; anorexia nervosa; nuclear magnetic resonance; EDTA-plasma
• ISSN: 2218-1989; 2218-1989
• DOI: 10.3390/metabo9090191

Eating disorders are severe illnesses characterized by both psychiatric and metabolic factors. We explored the prospective role of metabolic risk in eating disorders in a UK cohort (
= 2929 participants), measuring 158 metabolic traits in non-fasting EDTA-plasma by nuclear magnetic resonance. We associated metabolic markers at 7 years (exposure) with risk for anorexia nervosa and binge-eating disorder (outcomes) at 14, 16, and 18 years using logistic regression adjusted for maternal education, child's sex, age, body mass index, and calorie intake at 7 years. Elevated very low-density lipoproteins, triglycerides, apolipoprotein-B/A, and monounsaturated fatty acids ratio were associated with lower odds of anorexia nervosa at age 18, while elevated high-density lipoproteins, docosahexaenoic acid and polyunsaturated fatty acids ratio, and fatty acid unsaturation were associated with higher risk for anorexia nervosa at 18 years. Elevated linoleic acid and n-6 fatty acid ratios were associated with lower odds of binge-eating disorder at 16 years, while elevated saturated fatty acid ratio was associated with higher odds of binge-eating disorder. Most associations had large confidence intervals and showed, for anorexia nervosa, different directions across time points. Overall, our results show some evidence for a role of metabolic factors in eating disorders development in adolescence.