Associations between long-term physical activity, waist circumference and weight gain: a 30-year longitudinal twin study.
Waller, K., Kaprio, J., & Kujala, U. (2008). Associations between long-term physical activity, waist circumference and weight gain: a 30-year longitudinal twin study. International Journal of Obesity, 32, 353-361. doi:10.1038/sj.ijo.0803692
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International Journal of ObesityDate
2008Discipline
LiikuntalääketiedeCopyright
© 2008 Nature Publishing Group. This is a final draft version of an article whose final and definitive form has been published by Nature. Published in this repository with the kind permission of the publisher.
Background and objective: Physical activity level and obesity are both partly determined by genes and childhood environment.
To determine the associations between long-term leisure-time physical activity, weight gain and waist circumference and
whether these are independent of genes and childhood effects.
Design and subjects: The study design is a 30-year follow-up twin study in Finland. For this study, 146 twin pairs were
comprehensively identified from the large Finnish Twin Cohort. These twin pairs were discordant for both intensity and volume
of leisure physical activity in 1975 and 1981 and were healthy in 1981. At follow-up in 2005, both members of 89 pairs were
alive and participated in a structured telephone interview. In the interview self-measured weight and waist circumference, and
physical activity level for the whole follow-up were assessed. Paired tests were used in the statistical analyses.
Main outcome measures: Waist circumference at 30-year follow-up (2005) and change in weight from 1975 to 2005.
Results: In the 42 twin pairs discordant for physical activity at all time points during the 30-year period, the mean weight gain
from 1975 through 2005 was 5.4 kg (95% confidence interval (CI) 2.0–8.9) less in the active compared to inactive co-twins
(paired t-test, P ¼ 0.003). In 2005, the mean waist circumference was 8.4 cm (95% CI 4.0–12.7) less in the active compared with
inactive co-twins (Po0.001). These trends were similar for both monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs. Pairwise differences in
weight gain and waist circumference were not seen in the 47 twin pairs, who were not consistently discordant for physical
activity.
Conclusion: Persistent participation in leisure-time physical activity is associated with decreased rate of weight gain and with a
smaller waist circumference to a clinically significant extent even after partially controlling for genetic liability and childhood
environment.
...


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