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Segregation analysis of waist circumference, hip circumference and waist-to-hip ratio in the Korean Nationwide Family Study

International Journal of Obesity volume 26, pages 228–233 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

AIM: A central distribution of adipose tissue is frequently associated with cardiovascular disease and its risk factors. In this study, we investigated environmental, familial and genetic influences on waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) in 2507 members of 435 families who had participated in the Korean Nationwide Health Examination Survey.

METHOD: Maximum likelihood methods were used to fit several genetic and nongenetic models of inheritance to these data to determine whether an unobserved Mendelian major gene could explain the familial distribution of WC, HC and WHR. Adjustments for age, age2, body mass index, smoking, alcohol consumption and exercise were carried out separately for males and females by multiple regression procedures for WC, HC and WHR phenotypes prior to segregation analysis. Regression models were used to test genetic and non-genetic models in these 435 families.

RESULTS: Segregation analysis did not provide statistical evidence of a major gene controlling either HC or WHR. Mendelian single-locus models with two underlying genotypic distributions were best supported by these data on WC, and this putative major gene explained the 22.4% of variance in adjusted WC.

CONCLUSION: Future linkage studies may be worthwhile to further clarify the mechanisms controlling WC.

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Acknowledgements

This study was partially supported from an HMP grant (no. HMP-98-M-1-0004) of the 1998 Good Health Research and Development Project, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea. The results of this paper were obtained by using the program package SAGE, which is supported by a US Public Health Service Resource Grant (1 P41 RR03655) from the National Center for Research Resources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control, Graduate School of Health Science and Management, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea

    SH Jee

  2. School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    MT Kim

  3. Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, The Ajou University, Suwon, Korea

    SY Lee

  4. Department of Epidemiology, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    TH Beaty

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  1. SH Jee
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Correspondence to SH Jee.

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Jee, S., Kim, M., Lee, S. et al. Segregation analysis of waist circumference, hip circumference and waist-to-hip ratio in the Korean Nationwide Family Study. Int J Obes 26, 228–233 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0801884

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