Exposure to Metal Mixtures and Overweight or Obesity Among Chinese Adults

• Published in: Biological trace element research 2023-08, Vol.201 (8), p.3697-3705
• Main Authors: Fan, Gaojie, Liu, Qing, Wu, Mingyang, Bi, Jianing, Qin, Xiya, Fang, Qing, Wan, Zhengce, Lv, Yongman, Wang, Youjie, Song, Lulu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alcohols; Arsenic; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Body weight; Cadmium; Cigarette smoking; Computation; Drinking behavior; Exposure; Food intake; Gender; Heavy metals; Life Sciences; Metabolism; Metal concentrations; Mixtures; Nickel; Nutrition; Obesity; Oncology; Overweight; Phenotypes; Physical activity; Quartiles; Regression analysis; Statistical analysis; Strontium; Zinc
• ISSN: 0163-4984; 1559-0720
• DOI: 10.1007/s12011-022-03484-0

Previous research has investigated the association between individual metal exposure and overweight/obesity (OW/OB). However, there is limited data about metal mixture exposure and OW/OB. This study aimed to explore the individual and joint effects of 21 metals on OW/OB and its metabolic phenotypes. A total of 4042 participants were enrolled in our study, and 51.0% of them were overweight/obese. We quantified 21 metal levels in the urine sample. OW/OB was defined as BMI ≥ 24 kg/m 2 , while the metabolic phenotypes, including metabolic unhealthy overweight/obesity (MUOW/OB) and metabolic health overweight/obesity (MHOW/OB), were determined by BMI and metabolic state. We used logistic regression to analyze the effect of individual metal exposure on OW/OB and its metabolic phenotypes. Quantile g-computation was applied to evaluate the joint effect of metal exposure on OW/OB and its metabolic phenotypes. In logistic regression, zinc (Zn) was positively associated with OW/OB, with the odds ratio (OR) in the highest quartiles of 2.19 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.74, 2.77; P trend