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Aims: We examined the link between BMI and risk of a positive test for SARS-CoV-2 and risk of COVID-19-related death among UK Biobank participants., Methods: Among 4855 participants tested for SARS-CoV-2 in hospital, 839 were positive and of these 189 died from COVID-19. Poisson models with penalised thin plate splines were run relating exposures of interest to test positivity and case-fatality, adjusting for confounding factors., Results: BMI was associated strongly with positive test, and risk of death related to COVID-19. The gradient of risk in relation to BMI was steeper in those under 70, compared with those aged 70 years or older for COVID-19 related death (P interaction  = 0.03). BMI was more strongly related to test positivity (P interaction  = 0.010) and death (P interaction  = 0.002) in non-whites (predominantly South Asians and Afro-Caribbeans), compared with whites., Conclusions: These data add support for adiposity being more strongly linked to COVID-19-related deaths in younger people and non-white ethnicities. If future studies confirm causality, lifestyle interventions to improve adiposity status may be important to reduce the risk of COVID-19 in all, but perhaps particularly, non-white communities., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest NS reports personal fees from Amgen, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, and Sanofi, and grants and personal fees from Boehringer Ingelheim, outside the submitted work. PW reports grant from Boehringer Ingelheim outside submitted work. All other authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Policy makers are being encouraged to specifically target sugar intake in order to combat obesity. We examined the extent to which sugar, relative to other macronutrients, was associated with adiposity., Methods: We used baseline data from UK Biobank to examine the associations between energy intake (total and individual macronutrients) and adiposity [body mass index (BMI), percentage body fat and waist circumference]. Linear regression models were conducted univariately and adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity and physical activity., Results: Among 132 479 participants, 66.3% of men and 51.8% of women were overweight/obese. There was a weak correlation (r = 0.24) between energy from sugar and fat; 13% of those in the highest quintile for sugar were in the lowest for fat, and vice versa. Compared with normal BMI, obese participants had 11.5% higher total energy intake and 14.6%, 13.8%, 9.5% and 4.7% higher intake from fat, protein, starch and sugar, respectively. Hence, the proportion of energy derived from fat was higher (34.3% vs 33.4%, P < 0.001) but from sugar was lower (22.0% vs 23.4%, P < 0.001). BMI was more strongly associated with total energy [coefficient 2.47, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.36-2.55] and energy from fat (coefficient 1.96, 95% CI 1.91-2.06) than sugar (coefficient 0.48, 95% CI 0.41-0.55). The latter became negative after adjustment for total energy., Conclusions: Fat is the largest contributor to overall energy. The proportion of energy from fat in the diet, but not sugar, is higher among overweight/obese individuals. Focusing public health messages on sugar may mislead on the need to reduce fat and overall energy consumption., (© The Author 2016; all rights reserved. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association)

Objective The objective of this study was to investigate the allelic frequency of the fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene (rs9939609) and its influences on obesity and metabolic risk biomarkers in a cohort of normal weight and obese Chilean children determining its ethnicity. Methods A total of 136 normal weight children and 238 obese children (between 6 and 11 yr old) from an urban setting were recruited for this case-control study. The children were classified as normal weight [body mass index (BMI) ≥ 5th and < 85th percentiles] or obese (BMI >95th percentile), according to the international age- and gender-specific percentiles defined by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The analysis of serum markers was carried out using commercial kits. The FTO polymorphism was determined through a high-resolution melting enabled real time polymerase chain reaction. Ethnicity was determined by analyzing mitochondrial DNA by the restriction fragment length polymorphism method. Results As much as 85% of the cohort was Amerindian. The minor A allele of rs9939609 was associated with obesity (odds ratio (OR): 1.422 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.068-1.868] p = 0.015), calculated using an additive model. In sex-stratified analysis we found that the risk variant (A) of rs9939609 was associated with a higher homeostasis model of assessment for insulin (HOMA-IR) in prepubertal obese girls. In male carriers of the A allele, HOMA-IR showed no further deterioration than that already associated with obesity. Conclusions In summary, we confirm the association of the FTO gene single-nucleotide polymorphism rs9939609 with obesity in Chilean Amerindian children. Furthermore we show an association between the risk allele (A) and insulin resistance-related markers in prepubertal obese girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]