# Obesity and Longevity Across Generations

> **NIH NIH R01** · TRUSTEES OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $294,652

## Abstract

Are changing distributions of parental and early life factors altering the relation between obesity and longevity?
Will the increasing prevalence of obesity in the US 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 factors 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 body mass index
(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
factors related to offspring development and BMI—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 physiological 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 environmental co...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9961456
- **Project number:** 5R01AG057703-03
- **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:** $294,652
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9961456

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9961456, Obesity and Longevity Across Generations (5R01AG057703-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9961456. Licensed CC0.

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