Warkentin, S, Severo, M, Fildes, A orcid.org/0000-0002-5452-2512 et al. (1 more author) (2022) Genetic and environmental contributions to variations on appetitive traits at 10 years of age: a twin study within the Generation XXI birth cohort. Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity, 27 (5). pp. 1799-1807. ISSN 1124-4909
Abstract
Purpose
Given the variability in adiposity despite ubiquitous exposure to obesogenic food environments, it has been suggested that individuals respond in divergent ways to the environment they live in. The food environment becomes more ‘permissive’ as children age; therefore, genetic predisposition for a more avid appetite can be better expressed, influencing dietary quality, energy intake and weight gain. Our aim was to explore the genetic and environmental contribution of variations on appetitive traits in a sample of 10-year-old Portuguese children.
Methods
Participants were twins enrolled in the Generation XXI birth cohort (n = 86 pairs). Parents reported twin’s zygosity and child appetitive traits at 10 years of age through the Children’s Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Intra-class correlations (ICCs) for all appetitive traits were calculated for monozygotic and dizygotic twins separately to examine patterns of resemblance, and structural equation modeling was conducted aiming to estimate the genetic (A), shared (C) and non-shared (E) environmental variances.
Results
Moderate to strong heritability were found for child appetitive traits, with higher ICCs among monozygotic twin pairs. For all appetitive traits, with the exception of emotional undereating, genetic and non-shared environmental effects contributed to appetite variability. For emotional undereating, environmental effects seem to be more important than genetic effects (C: 0.81; 95% CI 0.71; 0.88 and E: 0.19; 95% CI 0.12; 0.29).
Conclusion
There was a significant genetic contribution, followed by non-shared environmental contribution, towards variation in appetitive traits in school-age children. Variation in emotional undereating was primarily explained by shared and non-shared environmental factors.
Level of evidence
Evidence obtained from well-designed cohort or case–control analytic studies.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2021. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) |
Keywords: | Twins; Children; Feeding behaviors; Appetite; Heritability; Cohort studies |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 16 Aug 2022 14:50 |
Last Modified: | 16 Aug 2022 15:01 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s40519-021-01322-1 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:189962 |