ABSTRACT

This study investigates two sources of education effects on obesity – achieved educational attainment and inherited genetic endowment for education. In doing so, we accomplish two goals. First, we assess the role of genetic confounding in the association between education and health. Second, we consider the heterogeneity in the extent to which genetic potential for education is realized, and we examine its impact on obesity. Data come from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Using a polygenic score approach, we find that, net of genetic confounding, holding a college degree is associated with a lower likelihood of obesity. Moreover, among individuals who hold a college degree, those with a high education polygenic score (a greater genetic propensity to succeed in education) are less likely to be obese than those with a relatively low education polygenic score. However, when individuals with a high education polygenic score do not have a college degree, their risk of obesity is similar to that of non-college-educated individuals with a low education polygenic score, suggesting that the effect of genetic endowment for education on obesity is conditional on college education.

摘要

本研究调查了教育对肥胖影响的两个来源——受教育程度和遗传的教育遗传禀赋。通过这样做，我们实现了两个目标。首先，我们评估遗传混杂在教育与健康之间的关联中的作用。其次，我们考虑了实现教育遗传潜力的程度的异质性，并研究了它对肥胖的影响。数据来自全国青少年到成人健康纵向研究。使用多基因评分方法，我们发现，除去遗传混杂因素，持有大学学位与肥胖的可能性较低有关。此外，在拥有大学学位的人中，与教育多基因分数相对较低的人相比，教育多基因分数高的人（在教育中获得成功的遗传倾向更大）肥胖的可能性更小。然而，当教育多基因评分高的个体没有大学学历时，其肥胖风险与教育多基因评分低的非大学教育个体相似，表明教育遗传禀赋对肥胖的影响以大学教育为条件。