As shown in 702 wives with 9-12 years of education and 612 husbands similarly educated, the summed skinfolds of one spouse are influenced by the educational level of the other spouse, considerably so for the husbands. Women with 9-12 years of education married to men of lower educational attainment are higher in the sum of four skinfolds while women of similar years of schooling married to men ...

BACKGROUND A common single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of FTO (rs9939609, T/A) is associated with total body fatness. We investigated the association of this SNP with abdominal and peripheral fatness and obesity-related metabolic traits in middle-aged men through a broad range of fatness present already in adolescence. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Obese young Danish men (n = 753, BMI > or...

Fluctuations in weight/fatness are compared in a longitudinal study of male participants aged 40-80 years from the Normative Aging Study (NAS) at the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in Boston. The incidence and prevalence of repetitive weight changes and factors associated with stability in body habitus are examined. The contributions of secular trends in weight/fatness, fat distribut...

BACKGROUND Multiple studies have provided compelling evidence that the FTO gene variants are associated with obesity measures. The objective of the study was to investigate whether FTO variants are associated with a broad range of obesity related anthropometric traits in an island population. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We examined genetic association between 29 FTO SNPs and a comprehensiv...

BACKGROUND Different approaches to measuring physical activity and fatness in youth have resulted in studies reporting relationships ranging from very strong to nonexistent. METHODS The sample comprised 787 boys and 752 girls between the ages of 7 and 16 years. Pedometer-determined physical activity, height, weight, and waist girth measures were taken. RESULTS Significant differences were f...

BACKGROUND Left ventricular mass (LVM) is correlated with body composition and central hemodynamics as well as kidney function. Recently, fat-free mass has been considered to be more strongly correlated with LVM in comparison to other descriptors of fatness. We therefore address the question of whether comprehensive descriptors of fatness, central hemodynamics and renal characteristics demonstr...