Impact of Genetic Heritability, Assortative Mating, and Fertility Differentials on Population-Level Obesity Trends

Nestor Aldea , Spanish Research Council (CSIC), French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED)
Aitor Garcia Aguirre, Spanish National Research Council
Sebastian F. Daza, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Alberto Palloni, University of Wisconsin-Madison

We model the influence of selected ancillary processes that partially account for trends of obesity prevalence in modern populations. They include vertical inheritance of obesity-related genetic variants, gene-environment interactions, phenotypic assortative mating, and differential fertility. These processes operate in the background modulating the effects of more proximate determinants of obesity, including environments and individual behaviors. Our approach sheds light on the spatial diffusion and intergenerational transmission of the phenotype under conditions determined by macro, micro, and mediating molecular factors affecting individuals' obesity risks. To model the ancillary processes, we use generalizations of Leslie matrices and Markov chains as well and Agent Based Models (ABM).

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 Presented in Session 78. Nutrition and Metabolism Disorders