Shorter men and overweight women get lower chances in life, says study
Posted on: 12/Mar/2016 3:56:55 PM
A study published in the journal BMJ has said that short men and overweight women receive lower incomes. The study was conducted by scientists at the university of Exeter in the UK. The researchers identified shorter height in men and higher body mass index (BMI) in women with the help of genetics.
120,000 participants whose data was available in the UK Biobank took part in the study. They were aged between 40 and 70 years. 400 genetic variants associated with height and 70 genetic variants associated with BMI were studied. Combining this data with the actual height and weight, the researchers asked if or not shorter height and higher BMI could lead to lower chances in life.
The results showed that when a man was 7.5 cm shorter just because of his genetics, his income was 1500 pounds lesser than his taller counterpart. Similarly, if a woman was a stone heavier just because of her genetics, her income was 1500 pounds lesser than her lighter counterpart. A stone is approximately 6.3 kg and 1500 pounds is approximately Rs. 1,43,391.
Speaking about this, one of the researchers said, This is the best available evidence to indicate that your height or weight can directly influence your earnings and other socioeconomic factors throughout your life. Because we used genetics and 120,000 people, this is the strongest evidence to date that there’s something about being shorter as a man and having a higher BMI as a woman that leads to being less well-off financially.
