Have you considered that checking for that specifically might not be actually needed? After all, the correlation between exercise and metabolic health is well established.
Have you considered that checking for that specifically might not be actually needed? After all, the correlation between exercise and metabolic health is well established.
That was my original thought, however if you want to quantify an effect it would be ideal to measure the same trait in both parent and offspring. I assume that the reason that this was done (I didn’t read the papers) is because this is a retrospective study, where the participants self-report on the exercise level of their fathers, rather than a longitudinal study which could measure the fathers’ metabolic state fitness at time of conception.
Thus, although there is a plausible link, I now agree with the parent post that this is sufficient reason to take the study with a grain of salt (given well known academic incentives to produce positive results, etc).