Impaired Dietary Decision-Making in Children and Adolescents with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia

Children and adolescents with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) are at increased risk for obesity and exhibit differences in brain regions associated with food reward and decision-making. We aimed to understand differences in dietary decision-making between youth with CAH compared to controls.

A total of 37 youth with CAH (12.2 ± 3.1 y, 59.5% female) and 100 controls (11.7 ± 2.4 y, 57% female) rated 30 low- and 30 high-calorie foods for health, taste, and liking. Participants then chose between 100 food pair trials using a mouse-tracking paradigm; 75 were discordant for health and taste ratings. Self-control success was measured as the percentage of trials in which the healthier food was chosen instead of the tastier food. Area under the curve (AUC) and maximum deviation (MD) are used as real-time indices of decision-making.

Patients with CAH exhibited higher AUCs (CAH: 9.48 ± 8.08, control: 6.40 ± 7.33; p < 0.05) and MDs (CAH: 0.20 ± 0.13, control: 0.15 ± 0.12; p < 0.05) in self-control trials. However, patients with CAH and controls did not differ in their self-control success (CAH: 28.47 ± 24.27%, control: 35.16 ± 25.01%; p = 0.16). In youth with CAH, testosterone was correlated with AUC (R = 0.46, p < 0.01) and MD (R = 0.38, p = 0.02) during successful self-control trials.

Children and adolescents with CAH exhibit more cognitive conflict when choosing between healthy and tasty foods. Two indicators of disease severity were associated with cognitive conflict during food choice in patients with CAH. Our findings suggest impaired dietary decision-making in CAH could contribute to obesity risk.