The interaction between physical activity and obesity gene variants in association with BMI: Does the obesogenic environment matter?

Abstract

BackgroundLittle is known about how obesity SNPs interact with moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in relation to BMI during adolescence, accounting for the obesogenic environment.MethodsWe tested 43 SNP by MVPA interactions with BMI (measured heights and weights) using stepwise addition of obesogenic neighborhood factors in 8,028 respondents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (1996; ages 12–21). Multi‐level models were stratified by race: European Americans (EA; N=5,022), African Americans (AA; N=1,726), and Hispanic (HA; N=1,280), controlling for age, sex, current smoking, region, and hours of TV/video, with addition of: 1) physical activity resources: physical activity facilities, parks; 2) neighborhood infrastructure: green space, street connectivity; and 3) neighborhood social factors: neighborhood poverty, and crime.ResultsNine of 43 SNP × MVPA interactions were nominally significant (EA: 7, HA: 2), with larger estimated effects on BMI in adolescents with lower MVPA. For example, in EA, rs987237 was associated with a 1.02 unit higher BMI in adolescents with < 5 (b=1.02, CI: 0.6–1.5) versus ≥ 5 (b=0.271, CI: −0.001–0.6) bouts MVPA/week. Findings were robust after inclusion of neighborhood obesogenic covariates.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that MVPA may attenuate obesity susceptibility during adolescence independent of neighborhood context.Grant Funding Source: R01HD057194