TY  - JOUR
AU  - Töpfer, Philipp
AU  - Klinger-König, Johanna
AU  - Siewert-Markus, Ulrike
AU  - Schipf, Sabine
AU  - Fischer, Beate
AU  - Sedlmeier, Anja M
AU  - Hebestreit, Antje
AU  - Ahrens, Wolfgang
AU  - Berger, Klaus
AU  - Brenner, Hermann
AU  - Do, Stefanie
AU  - Heise, Jana-Kristin
AU  - Jaskulski, Stefanie
AU  - Karch, André
AU  - Keil, Thomas
AU  - Klett-Tammen, Carolina
AU  - Leitzmann, Michael F
AU  - Peters, Annette
AU  - Schmidt, Börge
AU  - Schulze, Matthias B
AU  - Willich, Stefan N
AU  - Dörr, Marcus
AU  - Völzke, Henry
AU  - Markus, Marcello R P
AU  - Stracke, Sylvia
AU  - Grabe, Hans J
AU  - Ittermann, Till
TI  - Sex-dependent associations of childhood maltreatment with obesity-related traits: results from the German National Cohort (NAKO).
JO  - International journal of obesity
VL  - 50
IS  - 2
SN  - 0307-0565
CY  - Avenel, NJ
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
M1  - DZNE-2026-00203
SP  - 329 - 337
PY  - 2026
AB  - The relationship between childhood maltreatment (CM) and obesity is nuanced, and recent evidence suggests stronger associations between CM and obesity-related traits in females compared to males. This study aims to validate and extend these findings in a large sample from the German National Cohort (NAKO).The NAKO is a population-based cohort study including 204,744 adults. For the present analyses, 151,143 individuals (74,596 female) were included. CM was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Screener (CTS). From the CTS, an overall severity score (CTS sum score), a cumulative CM score (number of CM subtypes with at least moderate severity), and five CTS subtypes were considered as exposures. Obesity-related traits included anthropometric (height, weight, body mass index [BMI], waist circumference [WC]) and body fat markers (relative fat mass [rFM], subcutaneous [SAT], visceral adipose tissue [VAT]). Sex-stratified linear and logistic regression models were adjusted for age, education, and examination center to associate CTS-based scores with obesity-related traits.Associations of the CTS sum score with weight, BMI, WC, rFM, and SAT were stronger in females compared to males, while similar associations were observed for VAT. In both sexes, most obesity-related traits exhibited dose-response relationships with increasing numbers of CM subtypes. Compared to unexposed females, females with exposure to ≥3 CM subtypes had a higher risk for obesity (i.e., BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2; OR = 1.56; 95
KW  - Humans
KW  - Male
KW  - Female
KW  - Germany: epidemiology
KW  - Adult
KW  - Obesity: epidemiology
KW  - Middle Aged
KW  - Cohort Studies
KW  - Sex Factors
KW  - Body Mass Index
KW  - Child
KW  - Risk Factors
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:41652183
C2  - pmc:PMC12913021
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s41366-025-01914-2
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/285261
ER  -