Education modifies genetic and environmental influences on BMI.
Obesity is more common among the less educated, suggesting education-related environmental triggers. Such triggers may act differently dependent on genetic and environmental predisposition to obesity. In a Danish Twin Registry survey, 21,522 twins of same-sex pairs provided zygosity, height, weight,...
Main Authors: | , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2011-01-01
|
Series: | PLoS ONE |
Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3023797?pdf=render |
id |
doaj-6eb92ad7c3f94796a5775ab74eb5c74f |
---|---|
record_format |
Article |
spelling |
doaj-6eb92ad7c3f94796a5775ab74eb5c74f2020-11-25T01:55:16ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032011-01-0161e1629010.1371/journal.pone.0016290Education modifies genetic and environmental influences on BMI.Wendy JohnsonKirsten Ohm KyvikAxel SkyttheIan J DearyThorkild I A SørensenObesity is more common among the less educated, suggesting education-related environmental triggers. Such triggers may act differently dependent on genetic and environmental predisposition to obesity. In a Danish Twin Registry survey, 21,522 twins of same-sex pairs provided zygosity, height, weight, and education data. Body mass index (BMI = kg weight/ m height(2)) was used to measure degree of obesity. We used quantitative genetic modeling to examine how genetic and shared and nonshared environmental variance in BMI differed by level of education and to estimate how genetic and shared and nonshared environmental correlations between education and BMI differed by level of education, analyzing women and men separately. Correlations between education and BMI were -.13 in women, -.15 in men. High BMI's were less frequent among well-educated participants, generating less variance. In women, this was due to restriction of all forms of variance, overall by a factor of about 2. In men, genetic variance did not vary with education, but results for shared and nonshared environmental variance were similar to those for women. The contributions of the shared environment to the correlations between education and BMI were substantial among the well-educated, suggesting importance of familial environmental influences common to high education and lower BMI. Family influence was particularly important in linking high education and lower levels of obesity.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3023797?pdf=render |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Wendy Johnson Kirsten Ohm Kyvik Axel Skytthe Ian J Deary Thorkild I A Sørensen |
spellingShingle |
Wendy Johnson Kirsten Ohm Kyvik Axel Skytthe Ian J Deary Thorkild I A Sørensen Education modifies genetic and environmental influences on BMI. PLoS ONE |
author_facet |
Wendy Johnson Kirsten Ohm Kyvik Axel Skytthe Ian J Deary Thorkild I A Sørensen |
author_sort |
Wendy Johnson |
title |
Education modifies genetic and environmental influences on BMI. |
title_short |
Education modifies genetic and environmental influences on BMI. |
title_full |
Education modifies genetic and environmental influences on BMI. |
title_fullStr |
Education modifies genetic and environmental influences on BMI. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Education modifies genetic and environmental influences on BMI. |
title_sort |
education modifies genetic and environmental influences on bmi. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
series |
PLoS ONE |
issn |
1932-6203 |
publishDate |
2011-01-01 |
description |
Obesity is more common among the less educated, suggesting education-related environmental triggers. Such triggers may act differently dependent on genetic and environmental predisposition to obesity. In a Danish Twin Registry survey, 21,522 twins of same-sex pairs provided zygosity, height, weight, and education data. Body mass index (BMI = kg weight/ m height(2)) was used to measure degree of obesity. We used quantitative genetic modeling to examine how genetic and shared and nonshared environmental variance in BMI differed by level of education and to estimate how genetic and shared and nonshared environmental correlations between education and BMI differed by level of education, analyzing women and men separately. Correlations between education and BMI were -.13 in women, -.15 in men. High BMI's were less frequent among well-educated participants, generating less variance. In women, this was due to restriction of all forms of variance, overall by a factor of about 2. In men, genetic variance did not vary with education, but results for shared and nonshared environmental variance were similar to those for women. The contributions of the shared environment to the correlations between education and BMI were substantial among the well-educated, suggesting importance of familial environmental influences common to high education and lower BMI. Family influence was particularly important in linking high education and lower levels of obesity. |
url |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3023797?pdf=render |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT wendyjohnson educationmodifiesgeneticandenvironmentalinfluencesonbmi AT kirstenohmkyvik educationmodifiesgeneticandenvironmentalinfluencesonbmi AT axelskytthe educationmodifiesgeneticandenvironmentalinfluencesonbmi AT ianjdeary educationmodifiesgeneticandenvironmentalinfluencesonbmi AT thorkildiasørensen educationmodifiesgeneticandenvironmentalinfluencesonbmi |
_version_ |
1724984148951564288 |