Obesity is a significant risk factor for many chronic diseases. Recent work suggests that the relative distribution of fat is a better discriminator for relative risk of disease than any general measure of obesity. The emphasis of this study is to determine the magnitude of familial aggregation on the distribution of relative fat patterns (RFP), and to test for associations of fat patterning with hypertension (HBP) and non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM). The study has the following major objectives: 1. To identify the most efficient non-invasive technique to measure RFP in healthy adults, and adolescents. Three non-invasive techniques (anthropometric, bioelectric impedance, ultrasound) will be used to measure subcutaneous fat at specific sites in a sample of 200 randomly selected, healthy nuclear families. Multivariate techniques will be used to determine relative fatness and RFP. 2. To define the extent of familial aggregation of RFP and individual site specific fat deposits, using correlation analysis. 3. Path analysis will be used to calculate the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the familial aggregation of RFP. 4. To test for an association between HBP and RFP by comparing RFP in 200 adults with HBP. These are matched by age and sex to the 400 healthy adults previously evaluated (1:2 case- control ratio). 5. To test for the association between NIDDM and RFP by comparing RFP in 200 adults with NIDDM. These are also matched by age and sex to the reference sample of 400 health adults (1:2 case-control ratio). 6. To determine whether the existence of either HBP or NIDDM in one parent is associated with a different pattern of familial aggregation of RFP, as compared to that of healthy families. 7. Tracking of RFP from adolescence to early adulthood by measuring the adolescents twice after a three year interval.
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| Hasstedt, S J; Ramirez, M E; Kuida, H et al. (1989) Recessive inheritance of a relative fat pattern. Am J Hum Genet 45:917-25 |
