Familial resemblance of body fat distribution: the Minneapolis Children's Blood Pressure Study.

Although many reports have shown that obesity (as defined by weight for height indices) tends to run in families, considerably fewer data are available concerning the familial resemblance of body fat distribution as defined by the waist to hip ratio (WHR), which is a risk factor for coronary heart disease. This question was examined among 712 participants of the Minneapolis Children's Blood Pressure Study. For each family member separately (son, daughter, father and mother) the distribution of the WHR was divided into quintiles. Quintiles of WHR were cross-classified between child and parent to examine the proportion of subjects clustering in each quintile. A significantly higher than expected proportion of parent-child WHRs clustered in the top quintile. For example, 42.5% of sones were placed in the top quintile of their father's WHR (P less than 0.001) and 36.7% of daughters were placed in the top quintile of their mother's WHR (P less than 0.001). Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that these findings were independent of parent and child body mass indices and other covariates. These results indicate significant familial aggregation of body fat distribution and may aid in suggesting specific primary preventive strategies targetted at appropriate families to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.