Gene-environment interactions between education and body mass: evidence from the UK and Finland

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

December 15, 2017

Summary:

More education is associated with a lower body mass index (BMI) and likelihood of being overweight. However, since a large proportion of the variation in body mass is due to genetic makeup, it has been hypothesized that education may moderate the genetic risk. We estimate main associations between (i) education, (ii) genetic risk, and (iii) interactions between education and genetic risk on BMI and the probability of being overweight in the UK and Finland. The estimates show that education is negatively associated with BMI and overweightness, and genetic risk is positively associated. However, the interactions between education and genetic risk are small and statistically insignificant.

Published in

Social Science and Medicine

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 195 , p.12 -16

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.10.027

ISSN

2779536

Subjects

#524699

News

Latest findings, new research

Publications search

Search all research by subject and author

Podcasts

Researchers discuss their findings and what they mean for society

Projects

Background and context, methods and data, aims and outputs

Events

Conferences, seminars and workshops

Survey methodology

Specialist research, practice and study

Taking the long view

ISER's annual report

Themes

Key research themes and areas of interest