ASSOCIATION OF ADULT OBESITY AND SERUM B12 DEFICIENCY - A CASECONTROL STUDY FROM INDIA

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Introduction: Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin; has been implicated as an important factor in regulating various metabolic processes, thus playing a role in the etiology of obesity. To assess whether obese adults a Objectives: re at an increased risk for vitamin B12 deciency. This study aimed to assess the serum vitamin B12 status of obese Indians to see if there were any associations between body mass index (BMI) and serum B12 concentration. Medicine outpatient at a medical college university hospita Settings: Methods: l. We included 224 adult participants aged ≥19 years. Overweight and obesity were dened as BMI ≥ 25-29.9 kg/m2 and ≥ 30 kg/m2 respectively. The study subjects were divided into 2 groups as normal BMI (< 25 kg/m2) group, and the obese BMI (≥ 25 kg/m2) group. BMI was calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters square. Fasting venous blood samples were taken from the subjects for the estimation of serum B12 concentrations which were measured using the fully automated electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Low serum B12 was dened concentration < 197 pg/mL, and B12 deciency was dened as concentration below 150 pg/mL. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% condence interval (CI) were obtained by the binary logistic regression method. The correlation between serum B12 and BMI was calculated using Pearson's correlation coefcient (r) across various BMI categories. Serum B12 level was signicantly lower among obese adults compa Results: red with non-obese adults. There were signicant negative associations between BMI and serum B12 (p =0.004). Pearson correlation coefcient was strongly negatively associated for BMI with serum B12 level (r= -0.703, p<0.00001). Obesity in otherwise healthy adults was associated with Conclusions: an increased risk of serum B12 deciency. A negative association was found between serum B12 concentrations in obese adult subjects. This association was more pronounced with higher grades of obesity; further research at a large scale is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms and its prevalence in the obese population. We recommend that the possibility of vitamin B12 deciency should always be considered in obese adults.