Background: In the Division of Pediatric Neurology at the University Medical Center Göttingen we observed that many patients with Bell palsy are overweight or obese. To evaluate whether overweight and obesity are associated with increased risk of Bell palsy in children we conducted this single-centered retrospective study by performing a database search for International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 primary and secondary diagnosis of G51.0 (facial nerve palsy) between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2020.
Methods: For risk assessment, patients' body mass indices (BMIs) were compared with BMI data of controls from a nationwide child health survey.
Results: In total, 202 patients with peripheral facial nerve palsies (pFPs) were included, of which nearly half were classified as Bell palsies; 38% and 24% of the patients with Bell palsy and pFP had a BMI above the 90th percentile, respectively. High BMI was associated with statistically increased odds of Bell palsy in the group of overweight and obese patients (BMI >90th percentile; odds ratio [OR], 2.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.6 to 3.8; P < 0.001) and solely obese patients (BMI >97th percentile; OR, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.4 to 4.3; P = 0.003).
Conclusions: We could confirm our observation that overweight and obesity are associated with increased risk of Bell palsy in children.
Keywords: Autoimmune disease; Bell palsy; Children and adolescents; Overweight and obesity.
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