HERITABILITY OF ANTHROPOMETRIC VARIABLES IN TEHRANIAN FAMILIES (TEHRAN LIPID AND GLUCOSE STUDY; PHASE III)

Obesity is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular disease and genetic and environmental factors play important role in this risk factor. The aim of present study was to estimate the heritability of anthropometric variables in Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (TLGS) families. In this cross-sectional study, 529 two generation families were selected from among phase III TLGS. At least two members of the families were overweight or obese. Anthropometric variables, resting energy expenditure (REE) and body size index (BS) were determined. The heritability (h2) of variables was estimated using SOLAR software. In this study, 2460 individuals (493 fathers, 573 mothers, 720 sans, 674 daughters) participated, and the mean age of parents and offspring were 45.7±10.2 and 18.4±9.7 years respectively. In Tehran families, the sex and age adjusted heritability for anthropometric variables varied from 0.21(0.037) (hip) to 0.51(0.035) (BS); as expected, body size as a skeletal trait had the highest heritability. By considering the BS as a confounder, the REE heritability increased from 0.26 to 0.47. Therefore body size may have important role in determining the heritability of this variable. genetic factors have decisive role in obesity phenotype of Tehran families.