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The team examined data from more than 260 000 people and identified seven new gene locations tied to overweight and obesity, and four new gene locations associated with height.
In addition, most of the gene locations previously linked to various body measurements were confirmed in the study published online in the journal Nature Genetics.
The study authors said they also showed that the genetic mechanisms that cause extreme obesity are similar to those that cause milder forms of overweight and obesity.
"We know from experience that genetic factors are important for the emergence of both milder and more extreme forms of obesity, but how much overlap there is between genes that are involved in extreme obesity and normal or slightly elevated BMI [a measure of body fat] has not been examined systematically previously," study coordinator Erik Ingelsson, a professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, said in a university news release.
He added that the results "suggest that extremely obese individuals have a greater number of gene variants that increase the risk of obesity, rather than completely different genes being involved. In the long term, our findings may lead to new ways of preventing and treating obesity, which is one of the greatest global public health problems of our age."
More information
The US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more about overweight and obesity.
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