Life-Course Clinical Obesity and Midlife White Matter Hyperintensity Burden
Obesity is associated with adverse cardiometabolic outcomes and may have a detrimental effect on the structural health of the brain. Most previous studies rely on cross-sectional, body mass index–based measures that fail to capture cumulative exposure or metabolic severity. The Lancet Commission has proposed a clinical obesity framework distinguishing excess adiposity with cardiometabolic dysfunction from preclinical obesity. This study examines whether cumulative clinical obesity across early adulthood is associated with midlife brain MRI markers of small vessel disease and brain atrophy.
Authors
- Ileana De Anda‐Duran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3629-9465)
- Lydia Bazzano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8958-1352)
- Owen Carmichael (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0576-0047)
- David J. Libon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6617-6066)
- Jacob R. Albers
- Ihab Hajjar
- Greggory R. Davis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2410-9070)
- Rahul Madhavan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-5895-1565)
- Christian P. Corsten (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-0811-0698)
- Trishita Paul (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4968-3548)
- Benjamin P. Almond (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7637-1075)
- Franklin M. Epps
Institutions
- Pennington Biomedical Research Center (US)
- Tulane University (US)
- Louisiana State University (US)
- Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center (US)
- Louisiana State University Agricultural Center (US)
- Southwestern Medical Center (US)
- Rowan University (US)
- Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans (US)
- The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Neurology Open Access
- Published
- 2026-09-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1212/wn9.0000000000000188
- Primary Topic
- Nutrition and Health in Aging
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation
- National Institutes of Health