Abstract
Objective:
Middle-aged and elderly men with the Lewis blood group phenotype Le(a-b-), have a two-fold higher prevalence of obesity than others. We investigated if the association could be ascribed to differences in lifestyle, or if obesity determinants had a different impact in this group.
Method:
This was a cross-sectional study of 3,290 men aged 53–74 years with a mean of 63 years drawn from the Copenhagen Male Study. The main outcome measure was prevalence of obesity [body mass index (BMI) ≥30 (kg/m2)].
Results:
Among men with the Le(a-b-) phenotype (n = 315), the prevalence of obesity was 15.6%; it was 8.1% among men with other phenotypes (n = 2,975, p < 0.001). Obesity-related life style habits did not differ between Le(a-b-) and other men. In multiple logistic regression analyses, the role of obesity covariates was conspicuously different between men with the Le(a-b-) phenotype and men with other Lewis phenotypes. However, among Le(a-b-) men, a much stronger inverse association was found between high coffee consumption (>7 cups/day vs. less) and obesity, and between lacking fat avoidance and obesity; the odds ratio [95% confidence interval (CI)] for high coffee consumption was 0.2(0.1–0.7) and for avoidance of fatty foods 2.0(1.04–3.7). The association of obesity with leisure time physical activity, smoking, alcohol use, use of sugar in hot beverages, and tea consumption, did not differ between Le(a-b-) men and others.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggests a gene–environment interaction between lifestyle and obesity. Because some ethnic groups have up to 40% with the Le(a-b-) phenotype, the above observations may be of significant public health interest.
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