Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 21, 2020; 26(47): 7528-7537
Published online Dec 21, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i47.7528
Prevalence and associated factors of obesity in inflammatory bowel disease: A case-control study
Giuseppe Losurdo, Rosa Federica La Fortezza, Andrea Iannone, Antonella Contaldo, Michele Barone, Enzo Ierardi, Alfredo Di Leo, Mariabeatrice Principi
Giuseppe Losurdo, Rosa Federica La Fortezza, Andrea Iannone, Antonella Contaldo, Michele Barone, Enzo Ierardi, Alfredo Di Leo, Mariabeatrice Principi, Section of Gastroenterology, Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, University of Bari, Bari 70124, Italy
Author contributions: Iannone A, Di Leo A and Principi M planned the study; Losurdo G, La Fortezza RF, Iannone A, Contaldo A and Barone M collected data; Ierardi, Barone M and Principi M supervised the study; Losurdo G performed statistical analysis; Losurdo G and Ierardi E wrote the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final version.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the independent Ethics Committee of the Policlinico di Bari (protocol No. 4862) and was performed according to the Helsinki declaration 1975 statements.
Informed consent statement: All patients gave informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No benefits in any form have been received or will be received from a commercial party related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Giuseppe Losurdo, MD, Academic Fellow, Doctor, Section of Gastroenterology, Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, University of Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, Bari 70124, Italy. giuseppelos@alice.it
Received: September 30, 2020
Peer-review started: September 30, 2020
First decision: November 13, 2020
Revised: November 18, 2020
Accepted: November 29, 2020
Article in press: November 29, 2020
Published online: December 21, 2020
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

In recent years, an increasing prevalence of obesity in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been observed.

Research motivation

To investigate the relationship between obesity and IBD.

Research objectives

To evaluate the prevalence of obesity in IBD and associated factors.

Research methods

We collected data about IBD disease pattern and activity, drugs and laboratory investigations in our center. Anthropometric measures were retrieved and obesity defined as a body mass index (BMI) > 30. Then, we compared characteristics of obese vs non obese patients, and Chi-squared test and Student’s t test were used for discrete and continuous variables, respectively, at univariate analysis. For multivariate analysis, we used binomial logistic regression and estimated odd ratios and 95% confidence intervals to ascertain factors associated with obesity.

Research results

The prevalence of obesity was 6.9% in IBD and 7.9% in controls (not statistically different; P = 0.38). Obese IBD were older than normal weight ones. IBD onset age was earlier in obese population. Obese subjects had consumed more frequently long course of systemic steroids as well as antibiotics such as metronidazole or ciprofloxacin. Obese IBD patients suffered more frequently from arterial hypertension, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. On multivariate analysis, however, the only factor that appeared to be independently linked to obesity in IBD was the high abdominal circumference.

Research conclusions

Obese IBD patients seem to have features similar to general obese population, and there is no disease-specific factor (disease activity, extension or therapy) that may foster obesity in IBD.

Research perspectives

Dietary interventions to explore whether BMI variation may have some benefit on IBD course are warranted.