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Biomedical subjects

S M Garn

Publications and source records attributed to S M Garn.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Educational level, fatness, and fatness differences between husbands and wives.

In 1017 husband-wife pairs aged 20-49 y, both fatness and weight of the wives is inversely and linearly related to educational level whereas the husbands' summed skinfold measurements bear a curvilinear, parabolic relationship to years of schooling. Overall, fatness differences between husbands and wives diminish with increased education, and beyond 13 y of education husbands often exceed the subcutaneous fat thickness of their wives. When the education of one spouse is held constant at 9-12 y, women who marry up to men of greater education are systematically leaner and women who mary down are both fatter and heavier. These findings in spouse pairs sharing a common family income suggest that assortative mating with respect to educational level accounts for much of the socioeconomic effect in fatness including the fatness differences between women who marry down and those who marry up. These data also demonstrate that women are not fatter than men at all socioeconomic levels.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Fatness and obesity of the parents of obese individuals.

As shown in 1419 pairings of obese probands with their parents drawn from a larger series of greater than 9000 proband-parent pairings, the fathers and mothers of obese probands are of increased fatness level (+0.27 Z scores) and more often obese than expected (odds ratio 1.50 overall). However, the tendency towards increased fatness and a greater prevalence of obesity among the parents of obese probands bears a curvilinear relationship to the age of the proband, being least when the probands are young, peaking when the sons and daughters are teen-agers, and declining thereafter. Parents of lean probands in turn tend to be lean themselves (averaging -0.25 Z scores) and least often obese when their progeny are teen-aged. As shown in a two-generational context, familial obesity is best demonstrated in adolescents and their parents, either reflecting years spent in common or a specific etiology for adolescent-onset obesity.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

What did our ancestors eat?

Over the millennia various hominoids and hominids have subsisted on very different dietaries, depending on climate, hunting proficiency, food-processing technology, and available foods. The Australopithecines were not browsers and fruit-eaters with very high intakes of vitamin C; rather they were scavengers of kills made by other animals. The hominids who followed did include some cold-climate hunters of large game, but the amount of animal protein decreased with the advent of grain-gathering and decreased further with the introduction of cereal agriculture, with a concomitant decrease in body size. From what we know about food adequacy, preparation, and storage, the notion that the postulated "primitive" diet was generally adequate, safe, and prudent can be rejected. Over evolutionary time, many of our ancestors ate poorly, especially during climate extremes, and they were often at risk for vitamin deficiencies, food-borne diseases, and neurotoxins. Until the advent of modern processing technologies, dirt, grit, and fiber constituted a large part of most early diets.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Evidence against functional differences between "central" and "peripheral" fat.

As shown in 1639 men and 1851 women in the 20-49 y age range, four commonly used skinfold measurements (triceps, subscapular, iliac, and abdominal) are all highly covariant and do not show clear evidence of upper-body and lower-body or central and peripheral groupings. Moreover, the four skinfold measurements are similarly related to systolic and diastolic blood pressures and to total serum cholesterol at each decile of skinfold thickness and to a degree that strikingly parallels summed skinfold thickness (sigma sf). The changing relative contributions of the different skinfold measurements to the summed skinfold thicknesses with increasing levels of fatness also reveal no evidence of consistent anatomical or topographical groupings by body segment or distance from the body core.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed1988

Effect of skinfold levels on lipids and blood pressure in younger and older adults.

As shown in 5507 white participants in a total population sample, the level of fatness is systematically related to lipid levels and to blood pressure levels in older adolescents, younger adults, and older adults of both sexes. At all three age levels, the fatter subjects were highest in serum cholesterol, serum triglycerides, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure and more often hypertensive. The effect of fatness level on the four risk factors was similar for all four skinfolds regardless of location. Fatness level is thus related to lipid levels and blood pressure levels in both younger and older subjects, and there is no evidence that "central" or "peripheral" or upper body and truncal skinfolds are more directly related to these risk factors even after the sixth decade.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Applications of the pattern variability index (sigma z) to the quantification of dysmorphogenesis in the hand.

We have generated percentiles for the pattern variability index (sigma z) of the hand in 1,088 normal infants, children, and adults and have analyzed pattern variability indices for 820 individuals representing 50 congenital malformation syndromes with respect to the normal percentiles. The majority of the affected individuals exhibited elevated sigma z values for the hand, some vastly in excess of normal, while such syndromes as Down, Turner, and the Prader-Willi syndrome were low rather than high in pattern variability of the hand.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Polymorphisms in eruption sequence of permanent teeth in American children.

This study provides basic descriptive data on the frequency of pairwise eruption sequences ascertained in cross-sectional examination of 6,000 black and white American children in the Ten State Nutritional Survey of 1968-1970. All sex and race groups share a distinct pattern of sequence polymorphisms in terms of location, number, and level. Teeth in eruption phase I (M1, I1, I2) rarely reverse in sequence with those in phase II (C, P1, P2, and M2). Five sequences have variants that appear at greater than or equal to 20% in all groups, with M1I1 vs. I1M1 approaching maximum polymorphic values of 50%/50%. The traditional notation for eruption sequences can be modified to reflect these important variants, giving the sequence M1 I1 I2 [P1 C P2] M2 for the maxilla and [M1 I1] I2 [C P1] [P2 M2] for the mandible. The location of major polymorphisms is explicable by close timing of teeth within phase I and, separately, teeth within phase II eruption. However, strong integration of development of physically adjacent teeth apparently acts to reduce substantially the number of sequence reversals. The Ten State Survey data provide a sound descriptive basis for two populations, yet precise comparative data are available for few other human groups or primate species.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

The secular trend in size and maturational timing and its implications for nutritional assessment.

For most westernized countries there has been a marked intergenerational increase in size and a decrease in the age at menarche, both interrupted or temporarily reversed during economic disruption or war-time deprivation. In some Third World countries such secular trends have not yet occurred or there have been actual decreases in body size. The presence or absence of secular trends can be used as a form of nutritional surveillance, and in the westernized world the magnitude of secular trends necessitates continual updating of dimensional and maturational standards used in nutritional appraisal.

Female↗
PubMed1987

Differential rates of fat change relative to weight change at different body sites.

As shown in 620 adults followed over a 5-year period, rates of change in outer fat differ from skinfold to skinfold and, to a lesser extent, between the sexes. At each of four sites and for men and women respectively fatness change rates per kilogram of weight change are much the same for heavier and lighter individuals, for fatter and leaner subjects, and during weight gain as compared with weight loss. In both sexes the abdominal and iliac sites are more sensitive to overall changes in weight and fatness.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed1986

Secular trends in face size.

Comparison of lateral and postero-anterior radiographs of parents and their adult children shows a differential secular trend in facial depths, heights, and breadths. Children tend to have deeper, longer, and narrower faces than their same-sex parents.

Adult↗