An examination of the overlap between genetic and environmental risk factors for intentional weight loss and overeating.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To further our understanding of how intentional weight loss (IWL) and overeating are related, we examined the shared genetic and environmental variance between lifetime IWL and overeating. METHOD: Interview data were available for 1,976 female twins (both members of 439 and 264 pairs of monozygotic and dizygotic twins, respectively), mean age = 40.61, SD = 4.72. We used lifetime diagnostic data for eating disorders obtained from a semistructured psychiatric telephone interview, examined in a bivariate twin analysis. Both lifetime behaviors were measured on a 3-point scale, where absence of IWL or overeating formed one anchor on the scale and lifetime anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) formed the opposite anchors, respectively. RESULTS: In line with previous findings, a higher body mass index was significantly associated with the lifetime presence of IWL and/or overeating (odds ratio = 1.13, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.08-1.19). The best fitting twin model contained additive genetic and nonshared environmental influence influencing both IWL and overeating, with correlations between these influences of 0.61 (95% CI: 0.35-0.92) and 0.24 (95% CI: 0.07-0.42), respectively. DISCUSSION: About 37% of genetic risk factors were considered to overlap between IWL and overeating, and with only 6% of overlap between environmental risk factors. Thus, considerable independence of risk factors was indicated.

Author information

Author/s: Wade, Tracey D (TD); Treloar, Susan A (SA); Heath, Andrew C (AC); Martin, Nicholas G (NG);

Affiliation: School of Psychology, Flinders University, PO Box 2100, Adelaide, South Australia 5001, Australia. tracey.wade(-atsign-)flinders.edu.au

Grants: AA 07535 (Agency:NIAAA NIH HHS) ; AA 07728 (Agency:NIAAA NIH HHS) ; AA11988 (Agency:NIAAA NIH HHS) ; R01 AA007535-08 (Agency:NIAAA NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Twin Study

Journal: The International journal of eating disorders (Int J Eat Disord), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Sep; vol 42 (issue 6) : pp 492-7

Dates: Created 2009/08/24; Completed 2009/11/02;

PMID: 19235851, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/2/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.