Mental health from childhood to adolescence predicts excessive weight and body composition at 18 years.

Objective: To investigate the association of mental health in childhood and adolescence with four outcomes at 18 years: ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption, body mass index (BMI), excessive weight (EW), and body composition, including fat mass (FM) and fat free mass (FFM) in kg, FM index (FMI) and FFM index (FFMI) in kg/m.

Methods: Cohort study in which The Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA) (6 and 11 years) and the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) (18 years) provided information on internalizing (INT), externalizing (EXT) and any mental disorder (ANY). The exposure was classified in: "never", "at 6 and/or 11 years", "at 18 years only" and "at 6, 11, and 18 years". Linear and logistic regression were run. All analyses were stratified by sex.

Results: A total of 2722 participants were analyzed. At 18 years, female with EXT disorders at 6 and/or 11 years presented higher BMI (β: 1.70; 0.18-3.23), FM (β: 4.74; 1.42-8.06), and FMI (β: 1.53; 0.28-2.79) than those who never had. The odds of EW at 18 years was also higher in females with EXT disorders at 6 and/or 11 years (OR: 3.39; 1.56-7.36) and at the three time points (OR: 7.08; 1.69-29.59). Males with EXT disorders at 6 and/or 11 years presented higher FM (β: 4.45; 1.85-7.06) and FMI (β: 1.47; 0.63-2.31).

Conclusions: Among children and adolescents showing symptoms of EXT disorders, weight should be monitored carefully, thus ultimately contributing to reduce the burden of EW in adolescence.