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Genetic predisposition to adiposity is associated with increased objectively assessed sedentary time in young children.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Schnurr, TM 
Viitasalo, A 
Eloranta, A-M 
Damsgaard, CT 
Mahendran, Y 

Abstract

Increased sedentariness has been linked to the growing prevalence of obesity in children, but some longitudinal studies suggest that sedentariness may be a consequence rather than a cause of increased adiposity. We used Mendelian randomization to examine the causal relations between body mass index (BMI) and objectively assessed sedentary time and physical activity in 3-8 year-old children from one Finnish and two Danish cohorts [NTOTAL=679]. A genetic risk score (GRS) comprised of 15 independent genetic variants associated with childhood BMI was used as the instrumental variable to test causal effects of BMI on sedentary time, total physical activity, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). In fixed effects meta-analyses, the GRS was associated with 0.05 SD/allele increase in sedentary time (P=0.019), but there was no significant association with total physical activity (beta=0.011 SD/allele, P=0.58) or MVPA (beta=0.001 SD/allele, P=0.96), adjusting for age, sex, monitor wear-time and first three genome-wide principal components. In two-stage least squares regression analyses, each genetically instrumented one unit increase in BMI z-score increased sedentary time by 0.47 SD (P=0.072). Childhood BMI may have a causal influence on sedentary time but not on total physical activity or MVPA in young children. Our results provide important insights into the regulation of movement behaviour in childhood.

Description

Keywords

Adiposity, Body Mass Index, Child, Child, Preschool, Cohort Studies, Denmark, Exercise, Finland, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Obesity, Sedentary Behavior

Journal Title

Int J Obes (Lond)

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0307-0565
1476-5497

Volume Title

42

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12015/3)