1 Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
2 Department of Pediatrics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
3 School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
4 Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
5 Department of Pharmacy, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
6 Department of Medicine, Cardiac Sciences and Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
7 Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
8 University of Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
9 Department of Exercise Science, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
10 Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
11 Life Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
12 Division of Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
13 Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
14 Department of Neuroscience, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
15 Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

The brain derived-neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism causes functional changes in BDNF, and is associated with obesity and some psychiatric disorders, but its relationship to health-related quality of life (HRQoL) remains unknown. This study examined, in youth with obesity, whether carriers of the BDNF Val66met polymorphism Met-alleles (A/A or G/A) differed from noncarriers (G/G) on HRQoL. The participants were 187 adolescents with obesity. Ninety-nine youth were carriers of the homozygous Val/Val (G/G) alleles, and 88 were carriers of the Val/Met (G/A) or Met/Met (A/A) alleles. Blood samples were drawn in the morning after an overnight fast for genotyping. HRQoL was measured using the Pediatric-Quality of Life core version. Compared to carriers of the Val66Met Val (G/G) alleles, carriers of the Met-Alleles reported significantly higher physical -HRQoL (p = 0.02), school-related HRQoL, (p = 0.05), social-related HRQoL (p = 0.05), and total HRQoL (p = 0.03), and a trend for Psychosocial-HRQoL. Research is needed to confirm our findings and determine whether carriers of the BDNF Val66Met homozygous Val (G/G) alleles may be at risk of diminished HRQoL, information that can influence interventions in a high-risk population of inactive youth with obesity.