Multifaceted association of overweight and metabolically unhealthy with the risk of Barrett's esophagus in the UK Biobank cohort

The association of overweight/obesity and metabolically unhealthy (MU) with the risk of developing Barrett's esophagus (BE) remains uncertain. We evaluated whether MU and overweight/obesity are associated with increased BE incidence and whether they have a synergistic impact on BE development. We analyzed the body mass index (BMI) and metabolic indicators at baseline of 402,510 individuals from the UK Biobank with no history of BE. Overweight/obesity and MU were defined as BMI ≥ 25.0 kg/m² and presence of ≥ 1 MU indicators, respectively. Accordingly, the participants were categorized into four groups: (1) metabolically healthy non-overweight/obesity (MHNO), (2) metabolically unhealthy non-overweight/obesity (MUNO), (3) metabolically healthy overweight/obesity (MHO), and (4) metabolically unhealthy overweight/obesity (MUO). During a median follow-up of 13.5 years, 6195 (1.5%) individuals were newly diagnosed with BE. Among them, 39,281 (9.8%), 92,000 (22.9%), 25,297 (6.3%), and 245,932 (61.1%) individuals were classified as MHNO, MUNO, MHO, and MUO, respectively. In Cox regression analyses, both MU and overweight/obesity were independently associated with BE incidence. Moreover, BE incidence was significantly higher in the MUNO, MHO, and MUO groups, compared to the MHNO group. MU and overweight/obesity are independent risk factors for BE and have a synergistic effect on BE development.