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 retrieved date: 11/2/2009)

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