# Obesity and Longevity Across Generations

> **NIH NIH R01** · TRUSTEES OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $20,473

## Abstract

Are changing distributions of parental and early life modifiers altering the relation between obesity and longevity?
Will the increasing prevalence of obesity in the United State reverse recent gains in US life expectancy? What
makes some individuals more susceptible to the life-shortening effects of obesity than others? Answering these
questions requires a better understanding of the complex relations between obesity and longevity, in particular,
the potential for the early environment and related developmental modifiers to exert powerful modifying effects
on the association between obesity and longevity. We test four interrelated hypotheses about how demographic
changes in the distribution of BMI may affect the current generation's lifespan and modify obesity's effect on
lifespan in subsequent generations. These hypotheses are built on findings from experimental model organisms
and human epidemiology, theories of life histories and developmental plasticity from evolutionary biology, and
sociologic frameworks for understanding both intergenerational change and the health consequences of
obesity's stigma. Relying on a large, rich, and complementary collection of secondary datasets, we will complete
the following aims: Aim 1 - Test the hypothesis that relative BMI position in one's generational or cohort BMI
distribution predicts longevity above and beyond one's absolute BMI. Aim 2 - Test the hypotheses that each of
several modifiers related to offspring development and BMI, (i.e., parental BMI, offspring genome risk score for
obesity [BMIGP], and family common environment risk for obesity) exert transgenerational effects and predict
(and hence plausibly influence) offspring mortality rate independent of offspring BMI. Aim 3 - Test the hypotheses
that a “mismatch” between an offspring's physiologic predisposition for a given level of obesity and actual
offspring obesity will be, all else being equal, associated with decreased longevity. This hypothesis draws on the
idea of adaptive developmental plasticity, in which individuals may be physiologically “calibrated” during early
development to achieve best function and longevity for a phenotype in later life that would be predicted by their
environmental and genetic predisposition during early development. Aim 4 - Estimate the extent to which
adjusting for changes in the distributions of parental BMI, offspring birth weight, and offspring BMIGP accounts
for secular changes in the BMI-longevity relation that have occurred in the last half century. An interdisciplinary
team of statisticians, aging researchers, obesity researchers, sociologists, geneticists, and evolutionary and
reproductive biologists has been carefully assembled for this work. Understanding how and why obesity is
associated with reduced longevity and who is most vulnerable to its health risks is vital to informing public policies
and anticipating population health needs. Further, identifying early life characteristics and environmenta...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10048503
- **Project number:** 3R01AG057703-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** TRUSTEES OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** DAVID B ALLISON
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $20,473
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10048503

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10048503, Obesity and Longevity Across Generations (3R01AG057703-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10048503. Licensed CC0.

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