Animal and twin studies that have been able to control for the effect of genetics have challenged the consensus that physical activity causally reduces the incidence of major public health diseases and mortality. Multifactorial phenotypes, such as physical activity or cardiometabolic disease, are explained by a large number of gene variants that individually have very little explanatory power but collectively describe an individual's genetic susceptibility to a trait or disease. The effect of these hundreds of thousands of gene variants is summarized in polygenic risk scores, which this research team has also generated for physical activity.
The study will investigate causal relationships between genetic predisposition, physical activity, and cardiometabolic disease using large population data sets, polygenic risk scores, and genetically controlled longitudinal designs. In addition, we will use monozygotic twin pairs that are discordant for disease status to investigate potential mechanisms that influence disease development.
