Heritability of Body Mass Index Among Familial Generations
Authors' conclusion
In this cohort study of military enrollees whose parents also underwent prerecruitment evaluations, the observed correlation between midparental and offspring BMI, coupled with a calculated narrow-sense heritability of 39%, suggested a substantive contribution of genetic factors to BMI variation at 17 years of age.
Study context
- Population
- Offspring examined at prerecruitment military screening in Israel (1986–2018) whose both parents had body mass index (BMI) measured at their own prerecruitment evaluation at 17 years of age447,883 offspring
- Participants
- 1,343,649 participants
- Exposure
- Parental BMI status vs healthy parental BMI
- Outcome
- Spearman correlation of offspring BMI with mothers', fathers' and midparental BMI percentile; Odds ratios (ORs) of offspring obesity vs healthy BMI by parental BMI status
- Follow-up
- 17 years of age
Methodological detailspopulation-wide mandatory medical screening
- Population-wide mandatory medical screening
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Offspring obesity vs healthy weight by parental obesity; BMI correlation
Each group vs healthy BMIOdds ratio (95% CI)
Maternal obesity
4.96(4.63–5.32)
Paternal obesity
4.48(4.26–4.72)
Parental obesity
6.44(6.22–6.67)
- Correlation midparental BMI percentile vs offspring BMI (moderate)
- ρ = 0.386
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
BMI correlation among female offspring · 17 years of age
- Maternal-offspring BMI correlation
- ρ = 0.329
- Paternal-offspring BMI correlation
- ρ = 0.266
Prevalence of overweight or obesity in offspring by parental BMI
- Both parents healthy BMI
- 15.4%
- Both parents obesity
- 76.6%
- Both parents severe underweight
- 3.3%
Original publication
Heritability of Body Mass Index Among Familial Generations. JAMA Netw Open. Published 3 June 2024. doi:10.
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