RÉSUMÉ
BACKGROUND: The stage of life at the onset of obesity is an important factor in assessing inflammatory state and cardiometabolic risk. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between the obesity onset and the inflammatory profile in women with severe obesity. SETTING: Public hospital, Brazil. METHODS: Forty-eight women with severe obesity (20-59 yr old) were evaluated according to weight, height, neck circumference (NC), waist circumference (WC), and hip circumference, as well blood metabolic and inflammatory parameters. The participants were grouped according to obesity onset stage of life (early group: ≤19 yr; late group: >19 yr). RESULTS: The demographic means of the participants were: age of 39.7 years, weight of 122.7 kg and body mass index (BMI) of 48.4 kg/m2. The late group presented significantly higher values of leptin (lep)/adiponectin (adipo) ratio and homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) than the early group. The late group also had a lower adipo/lep ratio. Moreover, the late group showed correlations between the lep/adipo ratio and BMI (r = .460, P = .021), NC (r = .478, P = .016), and WC (r = .535, P = .006). Adipo was also correlated with NC (r = -.418, P = .038), WC (r = -.437, P = .029), and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) (r = -.485, P = .019). By contrast, in the early group, the lep/adipo ratio showed correlations with insulin (r = .647, P = .004) and HOMA-B (r = .564, P = .015). CONCLUSIONS: The inflammatory profile is correlated with anthropometric values in women with late-onset obesity. Inflammatory markers seemed to correlate with the glycemic profile in women with early-onset obesity. Furthermore, inflammation was higher in women with late-onset obesity compared to those with early-onset obesity.