{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T06:03:38Z","timestamp":1789625018017,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789603200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Nutr."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The association between body fat percentage (BFP)-defined obesity and depression in college students remains unclear, and gut microbiota alterations in this comorbid condition have not been fully characterized.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A total of 906 college students were recruited to examine the prevalence of comorbid obesity and depression and the association between body fat percentage-defined obesity and depression. Logistic regression was used for association analysis. Subsequently, 104 participants balanced for age and sex distributions across groups were selected and divided into four groups: obese with depression (G1), non-obese with depression (G2), obese without depression (G3), and non-obese without depression (G4). Fecal samples were analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      The prevalence of comorbid obesity and depression was 9.71%. BFP-defined obesity was significantly associated with depression after adjustment for covariates (OR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.10\u20132.38). Gut microbiota analysis showed no significant differences in \u03b1-diversity among groups, whereas \u03b2-diversity differed significantly between the G1 and G4 (\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.05). Descriptive taxonomic profiles suggested differences in the relative abundances of several genera (e.g., decreased\n                      <jats:italic>Akkermansia<\/jats:italic>\n                      , increased\n                      <jats:italic>Fusobacterium<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>Collinsella<\/jats:italic>\n                      in G1). PICRUSt- based functional prediction suggested differences in inferred microbial metabolic pathways between G1 and other groups, including higher predicted lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis pathway abundance than in G2 and G4.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>BFP-defined obesity was associated with depression in college students. The microbiome findings were exploratory and suggest that co-occurring obesity and depression may be associated with differences in gut microbial composition and predicted functional potential. Larger longitudinal studies with direct functional and inflammatory measurements are needed.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fnut.2026.1906822","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T05:31:29Z","timestamp":1789623089000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Associations of body fat percentage-based obesity with depression and comorbidity-related gut microbiota features in college students"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Yingli","family":"Xu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Public Health, Ningxia Medical University","place":["Yinchuan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhenchi","family":"Niu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Public Health, Ningxia Medical University","place":["Yinchuan, 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