A twin study of human obesity
- 4 July 1986
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Medical Association (AMA) in JAMA
- Vol. 256 (1), 51-54
- https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.256.1.51
Abstract
Height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) were assessed in a sample of 1974 monozygotic and 2097 dizygotic male twin pairs. Concordance rates for different degrees of overweight were twice as high for monozygotic twins as for dizygotic twins. Classic twin methods estimated a high heritability for height, weight, and BMI, both at age 20 years (.80,.78, and.77, respectively) and at a 25-year follow-up (.80,.81, and.84, respectively). Height, weight, and BMI were highly correlated across time, and a path analysis suggested that the major part of that covariation was genetic. These results are similar to those of other twin studies of these measures and suggest that human fatness is under substantial genetic control. (JAMA1986;256:51-54)This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit:
- An Adoption Study of Human ObesityNew England Journal of Medicine, 1986
- GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL SOURCES OF FAMILIAL AGGREGATION OF BODY-MASS IN TECUMSEH, MICHIGAN1984
- Familial resemblance in fatness indicatorsAnnals of Human Biology, 1982
- COMPARISON OF SELF-REPORTED AND MEASURED HEIGHT AND WEIGHTAmerican Journal of Epidemiology, 1982
- Evidence of Genetic Predisposition to Alcoholic Cirrhosis and Psychosis: Twin Concordances for Alcoholism and Its Biological End Points by Zygosity among Male VeteransAlcohol, Clinical and Experimental Research, 1981
- A twin analysis of dietary intake: Evidence for a need to control for possible environmental differences in MZ and DZ twinsBehavior Genetics, 1978
- The identical-twin transfusion syndrome: A source of error in estimating IQ resemblance and heritabilityAnnals of Human Genetics, 1977
- THE AETIOLOGY OF OBESITY IN CHILDREN A Study of 101 Twin PairsActa Paediatrica, 1976
- NAS-NRC TWIN PANEL - METHODS OF CONSTRUCTION OF PANEL ZYGOSITY DIAGNOSIS AND PROPOSED USE1967