Gene-Environment interactions and the case of BMI and obesity: how much do they matter?

Abstract

Abstract We investigate the demographic and population health implications of gene-environment interactions (GxE) in the case of BMI and obesity. We seek to answer three questions: (a) what is the first order impact of GxE effects on BMI and obesity, e.g. the direct effect of G in different E? (b) how large is the impact of GxE effects on second-order health outcomes associated with BMI and obesity, such as Type 2 Diabetes (T2D), disability, and mortality ? (c) is the range of available empirical estimates of GxE effects large enough to influence future trajectories of BMI, obesity, T2D, disability, and mortality? To limit the scope of the paper we focus on environments defined by birth cohorts. However, extensions to other environments, including but not limited to education, SES, early conditions, physical settings, are quite straightforward.