Size Does Matter: Adolescent Build and Male Reproductive Success in the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study
Received 21 April 2010; accepted 19 May 2010. published online 12 July 2010. Corrected Proof
Purpose
Women usually report attributes of masculinity as attractive. These are attributes are metabolically expensive. We examined the trade off of a key attribute of masculinity, muscularity, proxied by recalled adolescence build, with lifetime reproductive success in the developing country setting of Southern China.
Methods
We used poisson multivariable regression in 19,168 older (≥50 years) Chinese from the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study (phases 2 and 3) to examine the sex-stratified, adjusted associations of recalled adolescent relative weight (light (n = 6730), average (n = 9344), and heavy (n = 3094)) with number of offspring.
Results
Among men, recalled heavy adolescent weight compared with light was associated with an incident rate ratio for offspring of 1.08 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04–1.13) adjusted for age. This estimate was unchanged by adjustment for life course socio-economic position. There was no such association in women.
Conclusions
Male physical attractiveness, possibly representing levels of testosterone, was rewarded by lifetime reproductive success, despite potential costs. Socio-economic development may facilitate an inevitable move toward environmentally driven higher levels of testosterone with corresponding public health implications for any conditions or societal attributes driven by testosterone. Further investigation is warranted.
School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China (C.M.S., T.H.L., G.M.L.); the Guangzhou Occupational Diseases Prevention and Treatment Centre, Guangzhou Number 12 Hospital, Guangzhou, China (C.Q.J., W.S.Z.); and the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, The University of Birmingham, UK (K.K.C.)
Address correspondence to: Tai Hing Lam, MD, School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China. Tel.: +852-2819-9280; Fax: +852-2855-8214.
ABSTRACT