Higher BMI Predicts Women’s Multiple Sclerosis Disease Severity

VANCOUVER, BC—The severity of multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms might correlate to female patients’ Body Mass Index (BMI), according to authors of a cross-sectional study presented at the 68^th AAN Annual Meeting.

However, the correlation was “modest,” cautioned lead study author Benjamin Richter, clinical research coordinator at Barnabas Health in Livingston, NJ, and coauthors, in a poster presentation.

Obesity is “an inflammatory state marked by increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as leptin and interleukin 6, and it may be a risk factor for MS,” the researchers noted. To assess the possible association between MS disease severity and BMI, they conducted a cross-sectional study of neurologist-confirmed MS at two outpatient clinics, in Livingston, NJ and New York, NY. Only participants who were relapse-free for three months were enrolled in the study.

BMI and Patient Determined Disease Steps (PDDS) were recorded for a total of 1,024 patients, and Multiple Sclerosis Severity Scores (P-MSSS) were calculated using PDDS and disease duration data.

“BMI scores correlated significantly with P-MSSS [r²=0.0112; P=0.007] in the female population, but not among the male participants [r²=0.0014; P=0.59].” the researchers wrote. “In a multiple regression model, BMI was a significant predictor of P-MSSS (P<0.001), but accounted for only 2% of the variance.”