[en] This study investigates whether sustained adherence to a healthy lifestyle is associated with lower obesity risk among individuals of Indian ancestry who have a high polygenic risk score (PRS) for body mass index (BMI). For the purposes of this research, a health-promoting lifestyle is defined by routine physical activity, non-smoking or minimal smoking behavior, and adherence to a balanced diet. We analyzed two independent cohorts: 6,663 Indian participants from the UK Biobank and 91 participants from the Wellytics-Asian Institute of Gastroenterology cohort. Genetic predisposition was quantified using a BMI-PRS, while lifestyle behaviors were combined into a composite score categorized as favorable or unfavorable. Obese individuals exhibited significantly higher PRS values than non-obese counterparts (UKB: P = 1.3 × 10^-85; W-AIG: P = 6.67 × 10-4). Participants with both a high PRS and an unfavorable lifestyle showed the greatest odds of obesity (UKB: OR = 3.01, 95% CI 2.92-3.11, P_FDR = 8.21 × 10-33; W-AIG: OR = 24.51, 95% CI 23.47-25.56, P_FDR = 8.97 × 10-3), whereas those with high genetic risk but favorable lifestyles had reduced odds (UKB: OR = 2.13, 95% CI 2.00-2.25, P_FDR = 2.32 × 10-9; W-AIG: OR = 3.92, 95% CI 3.11-4.73, P_FDR = 0.19). These findings suggest that maintaining a healthy lifestyle may help reduce obesity risk even among individuals with strong genetic predisposition.
Research center :
Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB): Bioinformatics Core (R. Schneider Group)
Disciplines :
Public health, health care sciences & services Genetics & genetic processes
Author, co-author :
HASSANIN, Emadeldin ; University of Luxembourg > Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) > Bioinformatics Core
Kalapala, Rakesh; AIG Hospitals, Hyderabad, India
Jagtap, Nitin; AIG Hospitals, Hyderabad, India
Vishnubhotla, Ravikanth; AIG Hospitals, Hyderabad, India
Andhi, Nikhilesh; Wellytics Technologies Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad, India
Mamidi, Sandeep; Wellytics Technologies Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad, India
Vyshnavi, Shree; AIG Hospitals, Hyderabad, India
Jilla, Srikanth; AIG Hospitals, Hyderabad, India
Samudrala, Mithil; AIG Hospitals, Hyderabad, India
Shriya, P Shravani; Wellytics Technologies Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad, India
Chawla, Kamaldeep; Ayushman Heart and Wellness, Vadodara, India
Maj, Carlo; Centre for Human Genetics, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
MAY, Patrick ; University of Luxembourg > Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) > Bioinformatics Core
BOBBILI, Dheeraj Reddy ; University of Luxembourg > Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) > Bioinformatics Core ; Wellytics Technologies
Reddy, D Nageshwar; AIG Hospitals, Hyderabad, India
Data used to prepare this article were obtained from the UKB (Project ID: 73507). Ethics approval for the UK Biobank (UKB) study was obtained from the Northwest Multicentre for Research Ethics Committee (MREC). The UKB ethics statement is available at https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/learn-more-about-uk-biobank/about-us/ethics. All UKB participants provided informed consent at recruitment. Similarly, all W-AIG participants provided written informed consent, and the study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (approval number AIG/IEC-CT63/06.2022-03). Parts of the computational analysis were done on the High-Performance Computing cluster of the University of Luxembourg (https://hpc.uni.lu/). The funding for recruitment of samples from the W-AIG cohort was jointly funded by Wellytics technologies private limited and AIG hospitals.
