Profile of Intestinal Microbiota and Anxiety Level in Overweight Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Abstract Justification: Obesity is considered a worldwide epidemic, with a significant increase in its prevalence in the last 30 years in both children and adolescents. Anxiety disorders can be considered both a cause and a consequence of obesity. The intestinal microbiota has been identified as a participant in the inflammatory process of both obesity and depression / anxiety disorders. Objective: Describe and compare the intestinal microbiota profile of overweight/obese children/teenagers with and without signs of anxiety. METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES: descriptive, observational, cross-sectional study with an analytical character (comparison of groups), carried out during the months of January to October of the year 2019. 30 overweight/obesity children/teenagers (BMI greater than P85 – WHO 2007), between seven and 17 years old, convenience sampling. None of the participants had taken antibiotics during the past eight weeks of participation on the study or had chronic or endocrine disease that was not being adequately treated. The participants were divided into two groups: the first group consists of children/adolescents with excess weight without signs of anxiety (n 16) and the second group consists of children/adolescents with excess weight with signs of anxiety (n 14), assessed by a Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) screening questionnaire. Results: The group with signs of anxiety showing higher HOMA IR compared to the group without signs of anxiety with values of 5.05 ± 2.08 and 3.47 ± 1.6 (p = 0.041), respectively. There was a statistically significant difference for beta diversity of the intestinal microbiota profile using the CHAO method (p = 0.025) and the Jackknife method (p = 0.01) between the groups with signs of anxiety and without signs of anxiety. Conclusion: difference was found between the intestinal microbiota diversity of obese children / adolescents with signs of anxiety in relation to the intestinal microbiota diversity of obese children / adolescents without signs of anxiety. This finding suggests a possible involvement of the imbalance of the intestinal microbiota with anxiety disorders and depression in children/adolescents with weight excess.