Familial confounding of internalising symptoms and obesity in adolescents and young adults; a co-twin analysis
Main finding · Odds of obesity, whole cohortResult — go to the resultAdjusted odds ratio 3.1 95% CI 1.5–6.8Authors' conclusion
Some familial factors shared by twins confound the association between internalising symptoms and obesity in adolescent and young adult females. Internalising symptoms and obesity were not associated for adolescent and young adult males. Therefore, prevention and treatment efforts should especially address familial shared determinants of obesity, particularly targeted at female adolescents and young adults with internalising symptoms and those with a family history of these disorders.
Study context
- Population
- Twins aged 16 to 27 years
- Participants
- 4,018 twins
- Exposure
- High vs low internalising symptoms
- Outcome
- Obesity
Methodological detailsmatched co-twin design
- Matched co-twin design
Main finding
Odds of obesity, whole cohort
Adjusted odds ratio
3.1
95% CI 1.5–6.8
As reported in the abstract
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | aOR (95% CI) | |
|---|---|---|
| Odds of obesity, females | 4.1 (1.5–11.1) | |
| Odds of obesity, males | 2.8 (0.8–10.0) | |
| Between-pair odds of obesity, paired analysis, whole cohort | 6.2 (1.7–22.8) | |
| Between-pair odds of obesity, females | 12.9 (2.2–76.8) | |
| 0.050.21520Adjusted odds ratio (log scale) |
Between-pair odds of obesity, paired analysis, whole cohort
- No association using within-pair analysis, which controls for familial confounding
Between-pair odds of obesity, females
- Attenuated to the null using within-pair analysis
Between- and within-pair associations, males; effect modification by sex
- Weak evidence that sex modified the association (likelihood ratio test)
- P = 0.051
- No evidence of between or within-pair associations for males
Original publication
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →