IGF1 and obesity disorder: In 2022, a retrospective study of 2,567 obese individuals aged ≤ 18 years in Italy employed machine learning models to identify clinical and biochemical predictors of metabolic health status, revealing that the IGF-1 z-score standard deviation (zSDS) was a significant marker for distinguishing metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) from metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO), thereby underscoring its utility in clinical risk assessment and personalized obesity management27.