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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on October 13, 2006
American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwj342
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2006 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.
Received December 2, 2005
Accepted May 10, 2006

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Spouse Resemblance in Body Mass Index: Effects on Adult Obesity Prevalence in the Offspring Generation

Peter Jacobson 1, Jarl S. Torgerson 1, Lars Sjöström 1, and Claude Bouchard 2 *

1 Department of Body Composition and Metabolism, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden
2 Human Genomics Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Claude Bouchard, E-mail: bouchac{at}pbrc.edu


  Abstract

Accruing evidence indicates that mate selection is promoted by similarity in body fatness. Assortative mating for obesity may contribute genetically to the obesity epidemic by increasing the risk in subsequent generations. To test this hypothesis, the authors analyzed measured and validated questionnaire data on family members, obtained between 1987 and 2000 from 7,834 obese probands and from 829 subjects randomly ascertained from the general Swedish population. Spouse correlations in body mass index were strongest among couples with the shortest duration of cohabitation. Obesity concordance in parents was associated with an obesity prevalence of 20.1% in adult offspring compared with 1.4% if parents were concordantly nonobese (odds ratio = 18.3, 95% confidence interval: 9.0, 37.4). The prevalence was 8.2% if parents were obesity discordant (odds ratio = 6.5, 95% confidence interval: 3.2, 13.2). No association was found between rearing parents' and nonbiologic offspring's body mass index. These results agree with the hypothesis that assortative mating for obesity confers a higher risk of obesity in the offspring generation and thus contributes to the obesity epidemic. Parental obesity concordance is a strong, easily identifiable genetic risk factor that should be considered in the complex network of risk factors for obesity in designing primary prevention programs.

Keywords: body mass index; genetic screening; genetics, population; marriage; obesity; spouses.
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J. R Speakman, K. Djafarian, J. Stewart, and D. M Jackson
Assortative mating for obesity
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