The nature of environmental influences on weight and obesity: A behavior genetic analysis.

Grilo, Carlos M.; Pogue-Geile, Michael F.

doi:10.1037/0033-2909.110.3.520

Cited by 173 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…In this respect, a genetic predisposition (Norton and Han, 2008;Cawley, Han, and Norton, 2011) or the weight of family members (Brunello and D'Hombres, 2007, among others) is often used as an instrument. Proponents of this strategy cite an adoption study by Grilo and Poguegeile (1991) that appears to show no correlation between a common household environment and household members' BMI.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Obesity and the labor market: A fresh look at the weight penalty

Caliendo

Gehrsitz

2016

Economics & Human Biology

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. This paper applies semiparametric regression models to shed light on the relationship between body weight and labor market outcomes in Germany. We find conclusive evidence that these relationships are poorly described by linear or quadratic OLS specifications, which have been the main approaches in previous studies. Women's wages and employment probabilities do not follow a linear relationship and are highest at a body weight far below the clinical threshold of obesity. This indicates that looks, rather than health, is the driving force behind the adverse labor market outcomes to which overweight women are subject. Further support is lent to this notion by the fact that wage penalties for overweight and obese women are only observable in white-collar occupations. On the other hand, bigger appears to be better in the case of men, for whom employment prospects increase with weight, albeit with diminishing returns. However, underweight men in blue-collar jobs earn lower wages because they lack the muscular strength required in such occupations. JEL Classification:J31, J71, C14

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Obesity and the labor market: A fresh look at the weight penalty

Caliendo

Gehrsitz

2016

Economics & Human Biology

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“…It estimated rather the upper bound on heritability, since it included both genetic and shared family environment. Shared family environment, however, has been estimated to have little or no in¯uence on obesity, 20,21 leading us, as others, 11,12 to believe that useful information about genetic effects in obesity can often be obtained from the study of MZ twins alone.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A twin study of weight loss and metabolic efficiency

et al. 2001

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OBJECTIVE:To assess the genetic contribution to determinants of therapeutic weight loss in obese female identical twins. DESIGN: Subjects were studied for 40 days on an inpatient unit in three phases: 7 baseline days; 28 days of weight reduction by a very low calorie diet (1.6 MJ per day); and 5 days after weight reduction. SUBJECTS: Fourteen pairs of premenopausal obese female identical twins (age: 39.0 AE 1.7 y; body weight (BW): 93.9 AE 21.2 kg; body mass index (BMI): 34.2 AE 7.8 kgam 2 ). MEASUREMENTS: Body composition by hydrodensitometry and resting metabolic rate by indirect calorimetry were assessed before and after weight loss. RESULTS: There was great variability among pairs in loss of weight (5.9 ± 12.4 kg) and body fat (3.1 ± 12.4 kg). By contrast, the intraclass correlation (ICC) within twin pairs was 0.85, P`0.001 for weight and 0.88, P`0.001 for body fat. A measure of metabolic ef®ciency, calculated as the difference between`estimated' and`measured' energy de®cit showed high intrapair correlation (ICC 0.77; P`0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The high correlation in metabolic ef®ciency within twin pairs in response to therapeutic weight loss suggests a strong genetic contribution.

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“…For weight adoptive`siblings' correlate 0.01 and adoptive parents and their adopted children correlate 0.00. 2 However, with just two exceptions, 3 previous genetic studies have investigated individual differences in weight throughout the distribution rather than overweight or obesity. This is an important distinction because genetic and environmental factors responsible for overweight can differ from genetic and environmental factors responsible for the normal range of variation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A genetic analysis of weight and overweight in 4-year-old twin pairs

2001

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OBJECTIVE: Although many twin and adoption studies document genetic in¯uence on individual differences in weight, much less is known about genetic in¯uences on overweight, about the genetic links between weight and overweight, or about the origins of weight and overweight in childhood, an age that might provide a good target for prevention of obesity. We tested the hypothesis that, in early childhood, overweight is as heritable as weight and that weight and overweight are linked genetically. DESIGN: Model-®tting analyses were used to compare monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins (same-sex and oppositesex) for weight and overweight. SUBJECTS: The sample included 3636 4-y-old twins born in the UK in 1994. MEASUREMENTS: Heights and weights reported by parents were used to assess weight corrected for height, which yields results similar to body mass index (BMI) but corrects more completely for genetic effects on height. RESULTS: At 4 y of age, genetic factors contributed substantially both to individual differences in weight throughout the distribution and to the mean weight difference between overweight children and the rest of the population. Unlike results later in life, weight and overweight in 4-y-olds also suggest substantial shared family environmental in¯uence. Results are similar for boys and girls. CONCLUSIONS: Overweight is the quantitative extreme of genetic and environmental factors responsible for normal variation in weight in childhood. Genes associated with overweight are likely to be associated with variation in weight throughout the distribution, as assumed by quantitative trait locus (QTL) theory. These ®ndings linking weight and overweight in childhood have far-reaching implications for molecular genetic attempts to identify speci®c genes responsible for genetic in¯uence, for investigating pathways between genes and behaviour, and for intervention and prevention.

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The nature of environmental influences on weight and obesity: A behavior genetic analysis.

Cited by 173 publications

References 73 publications

Obesity and the labor market: A fresh look at the weight penalty

Obesity and the labor market: A fresh look at the weight penalty

A twin study of weight loss and metabolic efficiency

A genetic analysis of weight and overweight in 4-year-old twin pairs

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