Mediation and moderation of genetic risk of obesity through eating behaviours in two UK cohorts.

This article investigates how genetic predisposition to higher body mass index (BMI), quantified by a BMI-genetic risk score (BMI-GRS), is mediated by specific eating behaviours and moderated by types of dietary restraint in two UK cohorts: the Genetics of Appetite Study (GATE) and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). The study found that disinhibition (habitual, emotional, situational), emotional over- and undereating, and internal/external hunger partially mediate the relationship between BMI-GRS and BMI. While neither rigid nor flexible cognitive restraint directly moderated the genetic risk-BMI association, both types of restraint attenuated the indirect effects of disinhibition and external hunger on BMI. These findings suggest that eating behaviours serve as behavioural pathways linking genetic risk to obesity and that dietary restraint strategies may mitigate this risk across adulthood.