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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Dec 18.
Published in final edited form as: Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011 Apr 28;19(9):1840–1846. doi: 10.1038/oby.2011.78

Table 2.

Heritabilities of anthropometric traits

All Men Women
Trait h2 (SE) p value h2 (SE) p value h2 (SE) p value
BMI (kg/m2) 0.55 (0.07) 1.9 × 10−17 0.49 (0.15) 3.7 × 10−4 0.69 (0.12) 1.1 × 10−9
Waist circumference (inches) 0.55 (0.07) 2.3 × 10−16 0.67 (0.16) 3.9 × 10−5 0.56 (0.12) 1.0 × 10−7
Waist/height ratio 0.53 (0.08) 4.2 × 10−15 0.62 (0.16) 1.1 × 10−4 0.56 (0.12) 5.0 × 10−7
Body fat (%) 0.56 (0.07) 3.4 × 10−17 0.54 (0.16) 2.6 × 10−4 0.66 (0.12) 2.4 × 10−9
Subscapular skinfold 0.58 (0.07) 1.7 × 10−19 0.51 (0.17) 1.5 × 10−3 0.70 (0.11) 1.4 × 10−12
Triceps skinfold 0.48 (0.07) 3.7 × 10−14 0.36 (0.16) 0.010 0.50 (0.11) 2.0 × 10−7
  • h2 = heritability
  • SE = standard error of variance