The Swedish Youth with Obesity cohort: Profile of an ongoing prospective study

As there is a lack of studies on adolescents and young adults with obesity, the Swedish Youth with Obesity cohort was set up to describe the long-term results of medical, as well as surgical, obesity interventions in youth. This article describes the study protocol.

Since 2018, the study has continuously recruited patients aged between 16 and 25 years who have been admitted for obesity treatment at a specialist obesity clinic in Stockholm, Sweden. Participants provide data from blood tests, questionnaires, and anthropometric measurements. Data are collected longitudinally at enrollment and after 18 months and 3, 4, 5, and 10 years.

In the first 500 participants (76% female), the mean age was 21 (SD 3.0) years and the mean BMI was 41.3 (SD 6.1) kg/m² at enrollment. Almost half of the participants (44.4%) reported that both parents were born outside the Nordic countries. The proportion of participants who smoked at least sometimes was 28.4%.

The longitudinally collected data from the Swedish Youth with Obesity cohort will become a valuable source for answering various research questions regarding long-term results of medical and surgical obesity treatment in adolescents and young adults with obesity.