Interaction effects between childhood emotional overeating and polygenic influences on pubertal timing and tempo / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To explore the interaction effects and possible sex differences in childhood emotional overeating and polygenic influences on adolescent pubertal timing and tempo.@*Methods@#In March 2016 (T0), all participants were recruited from grades 1 to 3 from two primary school of Bengbu, Anhui Province using cluster sampling, and follow up surveys were conducted once per year (T1, T2, T3). Emotional overeating was assessed at T1 and pubertal development was assessed annually (breast Tanner stage in girls and testicular volume in boys). The nonlinear growth model was used to estimate pubertal timing and tempo. Polygenic risk scores were calculated based on 17 SNPs for early pubertal timing. Hierarchical linear regression was performed to examine the interaction effects between childhood emotional overeating and polygenic risk scores on pubertal timing and tempo.@*Results@#The complete data of 896 children were analyzed, including 373 boys (41.60%) and 523 girls (58.40%). A total of 203 (22.7%) children reported emotional overeating behavior at T1. After adjusting for several variables including early life adversity, delivery mode, and birthweight, only emotional overeating was associated with accelerated pubertal tempo among girls with a high genetic risk (B=0.19, 95%CI=0.07~0.32， P<0.01), although there was no association with pubertal timing (B=0.14, 95%CI=-0.12~0.41，P=0.28). In girls with a low genetic risk and boys, no evidence was found to support interaction effects between childhood emotional overeating and polygenic influences on pubertal timing and tempo (P＞0.05).@*Conclusion@#Emotional overeating was associated with a faster pubertal tempo in girls who had a high genetic risk of early pubertal development.