Background: The progress of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in childhood obesity and its indicators is challenging and there are differences in genetic studies in children and adults.
Objective: To illustrate the history of the development of GWAS in childhood obesity and its indicators and summarize the GWAS loci.
Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and GWAS Catalog databases were systematically searched from 1 January 2005 to 19 October 2022 for literature related to GWAS of childhood BMI, body fatness and obesity. The nearest genes were used as positional genes to perform gene set analyses including the enrichment of pathways, tissues and diseases.
Results: Twenty articles published between 2007 and 2021 were included in this scoping review, which identified 116 SNPs reaching genome-wide significance with childhood BMI (n = 50), body fatness (n = 31) and obesity (n = 35). The study populations were European in 16 studies, non-European in three studies (1 East Asian; 1 American; 1 Mexican) and trans-ancestry in one study. Several enriched pathways, tissues and diseases were identified through enrichment analysis of genes associated with childhood obesity and its indicators.
Conclusions: The innovations in tools and methods enable GWAS to better explore the genetic characteristics of obesity in children and adolescents. However, the number of GWAS in American, Asian and African populations is limited compared to the European population.
Keywords: childhood obesity; enrichment analysis; genome-wide association studies; mendelian randomization; pleiotropy; scoping review.
© 2023 World Obesity Federation.