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. 2017 Aug;106(2):457-466.
doi: 10.3945/ajcn.117.153643. Epub 2017 Jul 5.

Differences in genetic and environmental variation in adult BMI by sex, age, time period, and region: an individual-based pooled analysis of 40 twin cohorts

Karri Silventoinen  1   2 Aline Jelenkovic  3   4 Reijo Sund  3   5 Yoshie Yokoyama  6 Yoon-Mi Hur  7 Wendy Cozen  8   9 Amie E Hwang  8 Thomas M Mack  8   9 Chika Honda  2 Fujio Inui  2   10 Yoshinori Iwatani  2 Mikio Watanabe  2 Rie Tomizawa  2 Kirsi H Pietiläinen  11   12 Aila Rissanen  11   12 Sisira H Siribaddana  13   14 Matthew Hotopf  15 Athula Sumathipala  13   16 Fruhling Rijsdijk  17 Qihua Tan  18 Dongfeng Zhang  19 Zengchang Pang  20 Maarit Piirtola  3   21 Sari Aaltonen  3   22 Sevgi Y Öncel  23 Fazil Aliev  24   25   26 Esther Rebato  4 Jacob B Hjelmborg  27 Kaare Christensen  27   28 Axel Skytthe  27 Kirsten O Kyvik  29   30 Judy L Silberg  31 Lindon J Eaves  31 Tessa L Cutler  32 Juan R Ordoñana  33   34 Juan F Sánchez-Romera  33   34 Lucia Colodro-Conde  33   35 Yun-Mi Song  36 Sarah Yang  37   38 Kayoung Lee  39 Carol E Franz  40 William S Kremen  40   41 Michael J Lyons  42 Andreas Busjahn  43 Tracy L Nelson  44 Keith E Whitfield  45 Christian Kandler  46 Kerry L Jang  47 Margaret Gatz  48   49 David A Butler  50 Maria A Stazi  51 Corrado Fagnani  51 Cristina D'Ippolito  51 Glen E Duncan  52 Dedra Buchwald  52 Nicholas G Martin  53 Sarah E Medland  53 Grant W Montgomery  54 Hoe-Uk Jeong  7 Gary E Swan  55 Ruth Krasnow  56 Patrik Ke Magnusson  49 Nancy L Pedersen  49 Anna K Dahl Aslan  49   57 Tom A McAdams  17 Thalia C Eley  17 Alice M Gregory  58 Per Tynelius  59 Laura A Baker  48 Catherine Tuvblad  48   60 Gombojav Bayasgalan  61 Danshiitsoodol Narandalai  61   62 Timothy D Spector  63 Massimo Mangino  63   64 Genevieve Lachance  63 S Alexandra Burt  65 Kelly L Klump  65 Jennifer R Harris  66 Ingunn Brandt  66 Thomas S Nilsen  66 Robert F Krueger  67 Matt McGue  67 Shandell Pahlen  67 Robin P Corley  68 Brooke M Huibregtse  68 Meike Bartels  69 Catharina Em van Beijsterveldt  69 Gonneke Willemsen  69 Jack H Goldberg  70 Finn Rasmussen  59 Adam D Tarnoki  71   72 David L Tarnoki  71   72 Catherine A Derom  73   74 Robert F Vlietinck  73 Ruth Jf Loos  75 John L Hopper  37   32 Joohon Sung  37   38 Hermine H Maes  76 Eric Turkheimer  77 Dorret I Boomsma  69 Thorkild Ia Sørensen  78   79   80 Jaakko Kaprio  22   21
Affiliations

Differences in genetic and environmental variation in adult BMI by sex, age, time period, and region: an individual-based pooled analysis of 40 twin cohorts

Karri Silventoinen et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2017 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Genes and the environment contribute to variation in adult body mass index [BMI (in kg/m2)], but factors modifying these variance components are poorly understood.Objective: We analyzed genetic and environmental variation in BMI between men and women from young adulthood to old age from the 1940s to the 2000s and between cultural-geographic regions representing high (North America and Australia), moderate (Europe), and low (East Asia) prevalence of obesity.Design: We used genetic structural equation modeling to analyze BMI in twins ≥20 y of age from 40 cohorts representing 20 countries (140,379 complete twin pairs).Results: The heritability of BMI decreased from 0.77 (95% CI: 0.77, 0.78) and 0.75 (95% CI: 0.74, 0.75) in men and women 20-29 y of age to 0.57 (95% CI: 0.54, 0.60) and 0.59 (95% CI: 0.53, 0.65) in men 70-79 y of age and women 80 y of age, respectively. The relative influence of unique environmental factors correspondingly increased. Differences in the sets of genes affecting BMI in men and women increased from 20-29 to 60-69 y of age. Mean BMI and variances in BMI increased from the 1940s to the 2000s and were greatest in North America and Australia, followed by Europe and East Asia. However, heritability estimates were largely similar over measurement years and between regions. There was no evidence of environmental factors shared by co-twins affecting BMI.Conclusions: The heritability of BMI decreased and differences in the sets of genes affecting BMI in men and women increased from young adulthood to old age. The heritability of BMI was largely similar between cultural-geographic regions and measurement years, despite large differences in mean BMI and variances in BMI. Our results show a strong influence of genetic factors on BMI, especially in early adulthood, regardless of the obesity level in the population.

Keywords: BMI; adults; genetics; international comparisons; twins.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Additive genetic correlations for opposite-sex twin pairs by age based on maximum likelihood estimation. The number of opposite-sex pairs per age group is as follows: 7102 at 20–29 y, 6028 at 30–39 y, 5549 at 40–49 y, 6285 at 50–59 y, 3472 at 60–69 y, 1247 at 70–79 y, and 206 at ≥80 y.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Additive genetic and unique environmental variances in BMI by measurement year and sex based on maximum likelihood estimation. The number of complete twin pairs per decade varied from 3930 pairs in the 1960s to 22,055 pairs in the 2000s (the number of complete twin pairs by measurement year is available in Supplemental Table 3).

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