ArticleThe American journal of clinical nutrition2020
The genetic architecture of the association between eating behaviors and obesity: combining genetic twin modeling and polygenic risk scores.
Article in The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- In the context of the triple burden of malnutrition: A systematic review of gene-diet interactions and nutritional status.Critical reviews in food science and nutrition · 2024Pooled it
- Genome-wide association meta-analysis of eating behavior traits revealed one susceptibility locus for emotional eating.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Eating Behavior and Eating Habits: From Infancy to Adolescence.Nutrients · 2026Review
- The Association between the Obesogenic Environment and BMI Independent of Familial Factors: A Cross-Sectional Twin Study.Obesity facts · 2026Article
- Mediation of genetic susceptibility to obesity through eating behaviours in children.Pediatric obesity · 2025Article
- Efficient blockLASSO for polygenic scores with applications to all of us and UK Biobank.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Association between twin status with cognitive, behavioral development and brain structure in early adolescence: a retrospective cohort analysis based on the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Observational
- Role of Planetary Health Diet in the association between genetic susceptibility to obesity and anthropometric measures in adults.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2025Article
- Meals, mealtimes and moments for learning: assessment of quality in early childhood education and care services.Public health nutrition · 2025Article
- Relationships between the Planetary Health Diet Index, its food groups, and polygenic risk of obesity in the CARTaGENE cohort.Nutrition & metabolism · 2024Article
- Polygenic risk of obesity and BMI trajectories over 36 years: A longitudinal study of adult Finnish twins.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2023Article
- Review
- Dietary Mediators of the Genetic Susceptibility to Obesity-Results from the Quebec Family Study.The Journal of nutrition · 2022Article
- The temporal relationship between parental concern of overeating and childhood obesity considering genetic susceptibility: longitudinal results from the IDEFICS/I.Family study.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2021Article
- [Current state of the obesity research: genetic aspects, the role of microbiome, and susceptibility to COVID-19].Problemy endokrinologii · 2021Review
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7 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
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Abstract
backgroundObesity susceptibility genes are highly expressed in the brain suggesting that they might exert their influence on body weight through eating-related behaviors.
objectivesTo examine whether the genetic susceptibility to obesity is mediated by eating behavior patterns.
methodsParticipants were 3977 twins (33% monozygotic, 56% females), aged 31-37 y, from wave 5 of the FinnTwin16 study. They self-reported their height and weight, eating behaviors (15 items), diet quality, and self-measured their waist circumference (WC). For 1055 twins with genome-wide data, we constructed a polygenic risk score for BMI (PRSBMI) using almost 1 million single nucleotide polymorphisms. We used principal component analyses to identify eating behavior patterns, twin modeling to decompose correlations into genetic and environmental components, and structural equation modeling to test mediation models between the PRSBMI, eating behavior patterns, and obesity measures.
resultsWe identified 4 moderately heritable (h2 = 36-48%) eating behavior patterns labeled "snacking," "infrequent and unhealthy eating," "avoidant eating," and "emotional and external eating." The highest phenotypic correlation with obesity measures was found for the snacking behavior pattern (r = 0.35 for BMI and r = 0.32 for WC; P < 0.001 for both), largely due to genetic factors in common (bivariate h2 > 70%). The snacking behavior pattern partially mediated the association between the PRSBMI and obesity measures (βindirect = 0.06; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.09; P = 0.002 for BMI; and βindirect = 0.05; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.08; P = 0.003 for WC).
conclusionsEating behavior patterns share a common genetic liability with obesity measures and are moderately heritable. Genetic susceptibility to obesity can be partly mediated by an eating pattern characterized by frequent snacking. Obesity prevention efforts might therefore benefit from focusing on eating behavior change, particularly in genetically susceptible individuals.
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