Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 May;91(5):1172-9. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.28868. Epub 2010 Mar 24.
A strong genetic influence on appetitive traits has been shown in children and adults, but no studies have examined appetite in early infancy, even though avidity of appetite has been linked with a higher risk of obesity.
The objective was to investigate the heritability in early infancy of 4 appetitive traits that have been shown to be heritable later in childhood.
Data are from the Gemini Study, a population-based sample of twins (n = 2402 pairs) born in England and Wales in 2007. To describe their children's eating behavior during the first 3 mo of life while they were still exclusively milk fed, the parents of the twins completed 4 subscales of the Baby Eating Behavior Questionnaire: "enjoyment of food," "food responsiveness," "slowness in eating," and "satiety responsiveness." Heritability was estimated by using quantitative genetic model fitting.
Heritability was high for slowness in eating (84%; 95% CI: 83%, 86%) and satiety responsiveness (72%; 95% CI: 65%, 80%) and moderate for food responsiveness (59%; 95% CI: 52%, 65%) and enjoyment of food (53%; 95% CI: 43%, 63%).
Genetically determined variability in appetitive traits may be one of the pathways through which genes influence the growth rate in infancy. Early identification of infants with avid appetites may make it possible to implement strategies to attenuate the expression of these traits before excessive weight gain occurs.
已有研究表明，儿童和成人的食欲特征受遗传因素影响较大，但尚无研究探讨婴儿早期的食欲，尽管食欲旺盛与肥胖风险增加有关。
本研究旨在调查婴儿早期 4 种食欲特征的遗传性，这些特征在儿童后期已被证明具有遗传性。
数据来自 Gemini 研究，该研究是一项基于人群的双胞胎研究，双胞胎于 2007 年在英格兰和威尔士出生。为了描述他们的孩子在纯母乳喂养的前 3 个月的饮食行为，双胞胎的父母完成了婴儿饮食行为问卷的 4 个分量表：“对食物的享受”、“食物反应性”、“进食缓慢”和“饱腹感反应”。采用定量遗传模型拟合来估计遗传度。
进食缓慢的遗传度较高（84%；95%CI：83%，86%），饱腹感反应的遗传度较高（72%；95%CI：65%，80%），食物反应性的遗传度中等（59%；95%CI：52%，65%），对食物的享受的遗传度中等（53%；95%CI：43%，63%）。
食欲特征的遗传可变性可能是基因影响婴儿生长速度的途径之一。早期识别食欲旺盛的婴儿，可能有机会在体重过度增加之前实施策略来减轻这些特征的表达。
