Ga Young Lee, Kyong-Mee Chung, Junghak Lee, Jeong-Han Kim, Sung Nim Han
Journal: European journal of nutrition 2025;64(5):190
PMID: 40423790
Body mass index (BMI) is influenced by both lifestyle factors and genetics. In recent years, there has been growing interest in whether providing individuals with information about their genetic risk can motivate healthier behaviours, such as improving diet or increasing physical activity. However, it is not clear whether knowing this information leads to meaningful changes in health outcomes. This randomised control trial of 100 adults was conducted to examine whether awareness of genetic risk related to BMI affects lifestyle behaviours and blood cholesterol levels.
The results showed that providing genetic risk information did not lead to significant changes in physical activity or dietary intake compared to the control group. Changes in blood cholesterol levels were also not significantly different between groups.
In conclusion, simply informing individuals about their genetic risk for higher BMI may have limited impact on behaviour and health outcomes. Healthcare professionals may need to combine genetic information with additional support, such as counselling or structured interventions, to encourage meaningful lifestyle changes.
PURPOSE
Genes associated with body mass index (BMI), including FTO rs9939609,MC4R rs17782313, and BDNF rs6265, may influence BMI and regulate energy metabolism. While previous studies have explored health-related behavior changes, few have investigated both biochemical and behavior changes resulting from perceived genetic risk. This study investigated whether recognizing BMI-related genes affects health-related behaviors and alters blood metabolite levels.
METHODS
Normal and overweight adults aged 25-35 years (n = 100) were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n = 65) informed about BMI-related genetic information (FTO rs9939609, MC4R rs17782313, BDNF rs6265) and an uninformed group (n = 35, CON). The intervention group was further divided into Intervention-high risk (IHR, n = 36) and intervention-low risk (ILR, n = 29) subgroups. Dietary intake and physical activity (PA) were assessed using a 3-day dietary record and the IPAQ-short form. Blood metabolites were analyzed through multivariate analyses to identify significant differences among the groups, with measurements taken at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months.
RESULTS
The IHR group exhibited increased dietary fat and fast foods intake, along with enhanced vigorous and moderate PA. Six metabolites were selected as biomarkers that were distinguishable among groups, and the relative serum cholesterol levels significantly decreased in the IHR group at 3 months.
CONCLUSION
These results demonstrate that recognizing the BMI-associated genetic risk resulted in a short-term increase in PA but did not improve dietary intake. Increased PA was significantly associated with reduced cholesterol concentration, suggesting the clinical importance of physical activity in the genetically at-risk group.
CLINICAL TRIAL AND STUDY REGISTRATION
This study was reviewed and approved by the Seoul National University Institutional Review Board (IRB #1901/001-004) and registered on the Clinical Research Information Service (CRIS), KCT0004650 ( https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/search/detailSearch.do /14091, 2020/01/28).
© 2025. The Author(s).
Full Text Sources:
© Copyright 2026, Nutrition Evidence
NED wishes to thank the following organisations for their support:
We use cookies to improve your experience and analyze site traffic with Google Analytics. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn more.