Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to analyze how parental education modifies the genetic and environmental variances of BMI from infancy to old age in three geographic-cultural regions.
METHODS: A pooled sample of 29 cohorts including 143,499 twin individuals with information on parental education and BMI from age 1 to 79 years (299,201 BMI measures) was analyzed by genetic twin modeling.
RESULTS: Until 4 years of age, parental education was not consistently associated with BMI. Thereafter, higher parental education level was associated with lower BMI in males and females. Total and additive genetic variances of BMI were smaller in the offspring of highly educated parents than in those whose parents had low education levels. Especially in North American and Australian children, environmental factors shared by co-twins also contributed to the higher BMI variation in the low education level category. In Europe and East Asia, the associations of parental education with mean BMI and BMI variance were weaker than in North America and Australia.
CONCLUSIONS: Lower parental education level is associated with higher mean BMI and larger genetic variance of BMI after early childhood, especially in the obesogenic macro-environment. The interplay among genetic predisposition, childhood social environment, and macro-social context is important for socioeconomic differences in BMI.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 855-865 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Obesity |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Early online date | 5 Apr 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2019 |
Funding
Funding for individual collaborators is as follows. The Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden is supported by the Swedish Research Council through the Swedish Initiative for Research on Microdata in the Social and Medical Sciences Framework Grant 340-2013-5867, grants provided by the Stockholm County Council (ALF projects), the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation, and the Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association's Research Foundation. The Netherlands Twin Register acknowledges support from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and MagW/ZonMW Grants 904-61-090, 985-10-002, 912-10-020, 904-61-193,480-04-004, 463-06-001, 451-04-034, 400-05-717, Addiction-31160008, Middelgroot-911-09-032, and Spinozapremie-56-464-14192; Vrije University's Institute for Health and Care Research; the European Research Council (ERC; grant 230374); and the Avera Institute, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Data collection and analyses in Finnish twin cohorts have been supported by the European Network for Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology (ENGAGE; FP7-HEALTH-F4-2007, grant agreement 201413), the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (grants AA-12502, AA-00145, and AA-09203 to R. J. Rose), the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics (grants 213506 and 129680), and the Academy of Finland (grants 100499, 205585, 118555, 141054, 265240, 264146, and 312073 to J. Kaprio). Since its origin, the East Flanders Prospective Survey has been partly supported by grants from the Fund of Scientific Research, Flanders and Twins, a nonprofit Association for Scientific Research in Multiple Births (Belgium). Gemini was supported by a grant from Cancer Research UK (C1418/A7974). Data collection and research stemming from the Norwegian Twin Registry are supported, in part, by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programmes ENGAGE Consortium (grant agreement HEALTH-F4-2007-201413) and Biobank Standardization and Harmonization for Research Excellence in the European Union (grant agreement HEALTH-F4-2010-261433). Madeira data come from Genetic and Environmental Influences on Physical Activity, Fitness and Health: the Madeira Family Study (project reference: POCI/DES/56834/2004, founded by the Portuguese agency for research [the Foundation for Science and Technology]). S. Y. ?ncel and F. Aliev are supported by a K?r?kkale University research grant (2009/43) and a Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey grant (114C117). K. Silventoinen is supported by Osaka University's International Joint Research Promotion Program. The Boston University Twin Project is funded by grants (R01HD068435 and R01MH062375) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to K. J. Saudino. The California Twin Program was supported by the California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (7RT-0134H, 8RT-0107H, and 6RT-0354H) and NIH (1R01ESO15150-01). The Carolina African American Twin Study of Aging was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA; 1R01AG13662-01A2) to K. E. Whitfield. The Colorado Twin Registry is funded by National Institute on Drug Abuse grant DA011015 and Longitudinal Twin Study grant HD10333; B. M. Huibregtse is supported by 5T32DA017637 and 5T32AG052371. The Michigan State University (MSU) Twin Registry has been supported by MSU, as well as by grants R01MH081813, R01MH0820-54, R01MH092377-02, R21MH070542-01, and R03MH63851-01 from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), grant R01HD066040 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and grant 11-SPG-2518 from the MSU Foundation. The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIMH, NICHD, or NIH. The University of Southern California Twin Study is funded by a grant from NIMH (R01MH58354).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics | |
| Association for Scientific Research in Multiple Births | |
| Avera Institute | |
| Biobank Standardization and Harmonization for Research Excellence in the European Union | POCI/DES/56834/2004 |
| California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program | 6RT-0354H, 8RT-0107H, 1R01ESO15150-01 |
| East Flanders Prospective Survey | |
| European Network for Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology | FP7-HEALTH-F4-2007, 201413 |
| European Union's Seventh Framework Programmes ENGAGE Consortium | |
| European Union’s Seventh Framework Programmes ENGAGE Consortium | HEALTH-F4-2007-201413 |
| Fund of Scientific Research, Flanders and Twins | |
| Institute for Health and Care Research | |
| K?r?kkale University | |
| Kırıkkale University | 2009/43 |
| MSU Foundation | |
| MagW/ZonMW | Addiction-31160008, Middelgroot-911-09-032 |
| Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and | |
| Osaka University's | |
| Social and Medical Sciences Framework Grant | |
| Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association's Research Foundation | |
| Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association’s Research Foundation | |
| Swedish Initiative for Research on Microdata in the Social and Medical Sciences Framework | |
| Vrije University | |
| National Institutes of Health | |
| National Institute of Mental Health | R01MH062375, R01MH081813, R03MH063851, R01HD066040 |
| National Institute on Drug Abuse | 5T32DA017637, 5T32AG052371, DA011015, HD10333 |
| National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism | 141054, 264146, AA-00145, 205585, AA-09203, 118555, 265240, 312073, 100499, 213506, AA-12502, 129680 |
| National Institute on Aging | R01AG022381, R01AG018386, R01AG018384, R01AG022982, 1R01AG13662-01A2 |
| National Academy of Sciences | R21AG039572 |
| U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs | |
| American Liver Foundation | |
| Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program | 7RT-0134H |
| University of Southern California | R01MH58354 |
| Office of Research and Development | |
| Boston University | |
| Michigan State University | R21MH070542-01, R01MH092377-02, R01MH0820-54, R03MH63851-01 |
| Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development | 11-SPG-2518, R01HD068435 |
| Michigan State University Foundation | AA023322, HD081437 |
| Cancer Research UK | C1418/A7974 |
| European Commission | HEALTH-F4-2010-261433 |
| European Research Council | 230374 |
| National Health and Medical Research Council | 240994 |
| Japan Society for the Promotion of Science | 1079102 |
| Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | |
| Suomen Akatemia | 266592 |
| Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek | 463-06-001, 904-61-090, 904-61-193,480-04-004, 400-05-717, 451-04-034, 985-10-002, 912-10-020 |
| National Research Foundation of Korea | NRF-371-2011-1 B00047, 15H05105, 2011-220-E00006 |
| Hjärt-Lungfonden | |
| Osaka University | |
| Stockholms Läns Landsting | |
| Vetenskapsrådet | 340-2013-5867 |
| Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştirma Kurumu | 114C117 |
Cohort Studies
- Netherlands Twin Register (NTR)
