Sibling clustering in physical fitness: a study in Calanga, a rural region of Mozambique

Abstract

This study has two aims: 1) to determine familial clustering in different physical fitness components and 2) to estimate its genetic component (h²). We sampled 330 subjects (174 males and 156 females) aged seven to 17 years, belonging to 132 families from Calanga, a rural locality in Mozambique. Physical fitness was assessed with the following tests: sit-and-reach (SR), standing long jump (SLJ), flexed arm hang (FHA), hand grip (HG), 1-mile run (1M), curl-ups (CU), and shuttle run 10 x 5 meters (SHR). Correlations were used to estimate sibling clustering, and genetic factors were computed using a variance components approach within a maximum likelihood framework. All computations were adjusted for height, weight, age, sex, age², age³, sex*age, sex*age² as well as a physical activity score. SAGE, a statistical package for Genetic Epidemiology, was used in all analysis.Correlations within each fitness component were low: brother-brother (between -0.01 and 0.25), sister-sister (between -0.19 and 0.45) and brother-sister (between -0.02 and 0.39). The genetic component in each fitness component was: SR h² = 0.41 ± 0.16, p = 0.01; ALJ h² = 0.60 ± 0.14, p = 0.001; FHA h² = 0.18 ± 0.20, p = 0.37; CU h² = 0.09 ± 0.13, p = 0.59; HG h² = 0.19 ± 0.13, p = 0.16; SHR h² = 0.07 ± 0.15, p = 0.63; 1M h² = 0.49 ± 0.14, p = 0.001. Conclusions: 1) familial aggregation was higher between sisters than between brothers or siblings of opposite gender; 2) moderate genetic factors were found in flexibility, aerobic capacity and explosive strength; 3) variance between siblings in the other phenotypes were mostly explained by environmental factors that may be related to family subsistence activities.