Gender differences in familial aggregation of adiposity traits in aggarwal baniya families

The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential for common genetic and environ-mental influences on adiposity measures in Aggarwal Baniya families with adolescent children. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 309 Aggarwal Baniya families, including 1539 indi-viduals (271 fathers, 307 mothers, 967 children of both sexes) in New Delhi, India. Anthropo-metric measurements were measured and various obesity indices were calculated. The preva-lence of obesity in this community was high (BMI: fathers, 26.1 kg/m2; mothers, 29.4 kg/m2; sons, 16.9-22.4 kg/m2; and daughters, 16.3-24.5 kg/m2). Correlation and Heritability was esti-mated. Most sibling-sibling correlations were larger than the parent-offspring correlations, and all parent-offspring and sibling-sibling correlations were larger than the corresponding spouse correlation except for weight and waist circumference. For the obesity phenotypes, hip circum-ference and waist hip ratio (WHR) had the highest heritability of 82%, followed by waist height ratio (WHtR, 52%), body mass index (BMI, 49%), weight (46%), waist circumference (45%), and grand mean thickness (GMT, 35%). There is familial aggregation for obesity, as well as gender differences in familial correlations of obesity in children with daughters being more like-ly than sons to be affected by parental obesity.

Heritability ,

Parent-Child Correlation ,

Adiposity ,

BMI ,

Whtr ,