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Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
Childbirth moderates the genetic and environmental influences on BMI in adult twins
Irene Rebollo-Mesa1, Juan R Ordoñana
1Section of General Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College of London, Strand, London, UK. Irene.rebollo_mesa@kcl.ac.uk
Abstract:
We report a study of the moderating role that the number of childbirths has on the genetic and environmental influences on BMI variation. We used a classical twin design with a sample of 704 adult female twins (334 monozygotic and 370 dizygotic). A gene-environment interaction (G x E) model was applied to estimate the moderating effects of childbearing. Results show that age and number of children exert a significant positive main effect on BMI. Furthermore, we found significant moderating effects of childbearing, with a larger number of children associated with an increased sensitivity to environmental factors.
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