(P22-021-20) Association of Genome-Wide Genetic Risk for Obesity with the Quality, Quantity, and Timing of Workplace Food Purchases

Objectives: Understanding genetic predisposition to certain food choices could inform future tailored interventions to improve dietary intake and prevent cardiometabolic disease. BMI-associated genetic variants have been previously linked with self-reported eating behaviors. The aim of this study was to determine if BMI genetic risk was associated with objectively measured quality, quantity and timing of workplace food purchases.

Methods: Participants were employees of a large hospital in Boston, MA who enrolled in a randomized trial testing a workplace health promotion intervention. Cafeteria sales data, collected retrospectively for 3 months prior to the start of the intervention, were used to track the quality, quantity, and timing of purchases. A previously validated Healthy Purchasing Score was calculated using a traffic-light labeling system to estimate the healthfulness of the 3-month purchases (range 0-100%, higher=healthier). DNA was extracted from blood, and a BMI genome-wide polygenic score was generated by summing independent BMI-increasing risk alleles beta estimate from a genome-wide association study (Locke et al., 2015). Multivariable linear regression tested associations between BMI genetic score quartiles and workplace purchases, adjusted for age, sex, seasonality, and ancestry.

Results: In 397 participants, the BMI genetic score accounted for 15.0% of variance in BMI. The highest quartile of the genetic score (associated with greater BMI) was associated with a lower Healthy Purchasing Score compared to the lowest quartile (-5.8 percentage points, P=0.004). The highest quartile of the BMI genetic score was also associated with purchasing a higher quantity of food items over 3-months (18.73 more items, P=0.01) and with a later time of breakfast purchases (13.94 minutes later, P=0.04) and lunch purchases (9.15 minutes later, P=0.04) compared to the lowest quartile.

Conclusions: This study provides preliminary evidence for associations between genetic risk for obesity and the quality, quantity, and timing of objectively measured food purchased in a real-life setting. These findings suggest that BMI genetic scores could inform the development of personalized interventions to improve healthy eating and reduce obesity at work and other settings.

Funding Sources: NIH