Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Obese population is at risk of psychological complications such as anxiety and depression. We carried out this study to assess the effect of a weight loss program and prebiotic supplementation on anxiety symptoms and stress levels in an obese adult population.

Methods: Interventional study involving 30 obese patients consulting the obesity unit of the National Institute of Nutrition in Tunis between June and August 2022. Patients were divided into 2 groups matched for age, sex and BMI: diet alone and prebiotics (30 g carob/day). All patients were screened for anxiety symptoms using the HAD score (anxiety dimension). The Cungi stress scale was used to evaluate stress level. The two questionnaires were administered at T0 and one month after the start of the diet (T1).

Results: The mean age was 40.3 ±6.7 years with a female predominance (80% of women). There was a significant weight loss in each group (diet only group: -2.5 kg P=0.001 and prebiotic group: -2.2 kg, P=0.003). However, there was no significant difference between the two groups (P=0.7). For the diet alone group, at T0, anxiety related symptoms were present in 100% of the patients (13.3% doubtful symptoms and 86.7% certain symptoms). For the prebiotic group, anxiety related symptoms were present in 80% of patients (13.3% doubtful and 66.7% certain) but no statistically significant difference between groups was found (P=0.4). More than half of the study population (73.3%) had a high to very high level of stress (80% of diet alone group vs 66.6% of prebiotic group) but no statistically significant difference between groups was found (P=0.7). At T1, there was a significant improvement in the HAD-anxiety scores for both groups: diet alone group (mean difference (T0-T1) =2.1, P=0.02) and prebiotic group (mean difference (T1-T0) =1.9, P=0.01). Likewise, we have noticed a significant improvement in the Cungi stress scale scores for both groups: diet alone group (mean difference (T0-T1) =6.7, P=0.01) and prebiotic group (mean difference (T0-T1) =4.8 P=0.001). There was no significant difference between the two groups for the improvement of anxiety symptoms or stress level between T0 and T1 (P=0.8 and P=0.5 respectively).

Conclusion: Our study showed a high prevalence of psychological distress among obese patients. The improvement in anxiety symptoms and stress levels was not related to prebiotic consumption. This improvement is more related to the weight loss.