Intergenerational transmission of body mass index and associations with educational attainment

BACKGROUND: Individual differences in educational attainment (EA) and physical health, as indexed by body mass index (BMI), are correlated within persons and across generations. The present aim was to assess these associations while controlling for parental transmission. METHODS: We analyzed BMI and EA obtained for 8,866 families from the Netherlands. Data were available for 19,132 persons, including 6,901 parents (mean age 54) and 12,234 of their adult offspring (mean age 32). We employed structural equation modeling to simultaneously model the direct and indirect transmission of BMI and EA from parents to offspring, spousal correlations, and the residual within-person BMI-EA association and tested for gender differences in the transmission parameters. RESULTS: We found moderate intergeneration transmission for BMI (standardized beta ~ .20) and EA (~ .22), and substantial spousal correlations for BMI (.23) and EA (.51). Cross-trait parent to offspring transmission was weak. The strength of transmission was largely independent of parent or offspring gender. Negative within person EA-BMI correlations were observed for all family members (fathers, -0.102; mothers, -0.147; sons, -0.154; daughters, -0.173). About 60% of the EA-BMI correlation in offspring persisted after taking into account the intergeneration transmission. CONCLUSIONS: The intergenerational transmission for BMI and EA is mainly predictive within traits. Significant spousal and within person correlations in the parental generation are responsible for the effect of parental EA on offspring BMI. Offspring EA and BMI are further correlated beyond parental influences. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-13270-1.