Previous experience with genome-wide association studies of anthropometric traits such as BMI [10], [14], [16]–[17],[20] and height [43]–[46] suggested that large numbers of additional samples would be required to establish association at levels of genome-wide significance. We focused our attention on 23 SNPs that showed strong association with at least one of the waist phenotypes, but with less significant evidence of association with BMI (p>0.01) and height (p>0.005), from previous analyses performed of stage 1 GWAS data within the GIANT consortia. These 23 SNPs thus had significantly stronger evidence of association with the waist phenotypes in our initial genome wide meta-analysis data than with BMI or height in previous meta-analyses involving comparable numbers of subjects.
