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Duncan GE, Cash SW, Horn EE, Turkheimer E Physical activity, neighborhood walkability, and body mass index (BMI, kg/m(2)) associations were tested using quasi-experimental twin methods. We hypothesized that physical activity and walkability were independently associated with BMI within twin pairs, controlling for genetic and environmental background shared between them. Data were from 6376 (64% female; 58% […]

Watson NF, Harden KP, Buchwald D, Vitiello MV, Pack AI, Strachan E, Goldberg J We used quantitative genetic models to assess whether sleep duration modifies genetic and environmental influences on depressive symptoms. Participants were 1,788 adult twins from 894 same-sex twin pairs (192 male and 412 female monozygotic [MZ] pairs, and 81 male and 209 female […]

Watson NF, Harden KP, Buchwald D, Vitiello MV, Pack AI, Weigle DS, Goldberg J To examine whether sleep duration modifies genetic and environmental influences on body mass index (BMI), investigators conducted a genotype-environment interaction twin study. the dataset included twin pairs from the University of Washington Twin Registry (1,088 pairs, 604 monozygotic, 484 dizygotic; 66% female; […]

Duncan GE, Dansie EJ, Strachan E, Munsell M, Huang R, Vernez Moudon A, Goldberg J, Buchwald D We used a classical twin design and measures of neighborhood walkability and social deprivation, using each twin’s street address, to examine genetic and environmental influences on the residential location of 1389 same-sex pairs from a US community-based twin […]

Dansie EJ, Heppner P, Furberg H, Goldberg J, Buchwald D, Afari N Data from primary care and community samples suggest higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). This study investigated the co-occurrence of CFS, PTSD, and trauma symptoms and assessed the contribution of familial factors to the association of […]

Plesh O, Noonan C, Buchwald DS, Goldberg J, Afari N To determine whether shared genetic influences are responsible for the association between pain from temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and migraine headache. Data were obtained from 1,236 monozygotic and 570 dizygotic female twin pairs from the University of Washington Twin Registry. TMD pain was assessed with a question […]

Afari N, Noonan C, Goldberg J, Roy-Byrne P, Schur E, Golnari G, Buchwald D Studies have found a modest association between depression and obesity, especially in women. Given the substantial genetic contribution to both depression and obesity, we sought to determine whether shared genetic influences are responsible for the association between these 2 conditions. Data were […]

Wright LJ, Schur E, Noonan C, Ahumada S, Buchwald D, Afari N Chronic pain and obesity, and their associated impairments, are major health concerns. We estimated the association of overweight and obesity with 5 distinct pain conditions and 3 pain symptoms, and examined whether familial influences explained these relationships. We used data collected from 3,471 twins […]

Schur E, Noonan C, Buchwald D, Goldberg J, Afari N To determine if shared genetic or environmental vulnerabilities could underlie depression and migraine. Depression and migraine headaches frequently coexist and their comorbidity may be due to shared etiologies. Female twins in the University of Washington Twin Registry responded to a mailed survey regarding their health history. Depression […]

Afari N, Wen Y, Buchwald D, Goldberg J, Plesh O The goals of this study were to determine if symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are related to the pain of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) in a community-based sample of female twin pairs, and if so, to ascertain if the association is due to the presence […]

Duncan GE, Goldberg J, Noonan C, Moudon AV, Hurvitz P, Buchwald D The health benefits of regular physical activity are well established. However, the relative contribution of heritable and environmental factors to physical activity participation remains controversial. Using a cut-point of 60 minutes of total activity per week, data from the GenomEUtwin project revealed consistent […]

Schur E, Afari N, Goldberg J, Buchwald D, Sullivan PF Prolonged fatigue of ≥1 month duration and chronic fatigue of ≥6 months duration are both commonly seen in clinical practice, yet little is known about the etiology or epidemiology of either symptom. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), while rarer, presents similar challenges in determining cause and […]

Schur E, Afari N, Furberg H, Olarte M, Goldberg J, Sullivan PF, Buchwald D Considerable overlap in symptoms and disease comorbidity has been noted among medically unexplained and psychiatric conditions seen in the primary care setting, such as chronic fatigue syndrome, low back pain, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic tension headache, fibromyalgia, temporomandibular joint disorder, major […]

Afari N, Noonan C, Goldberg J, Edwards K, Gadepalli K, Osterman B, Evanoff C, Buchwald D The University of Washington Twin Registry is a community-based registry of twins identified from the Washington State Department of Licensing. A fortuitous quirk in the Washington State drivers’ license and identification number assignment, and collaborative Washington State laws, permitted […]

Arguelles LM, Afari N, Buchwald D, Clauw DJ, Furner S, Goldberg J Previous studies of the association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic widespread pain (CWP) or fibromyalgia have not examined the role of familial or genetic factors. The goals of this study were to determine if symptoms of PTSD are related to CWP […]

Roy-Byrne P, Noonan C, Afari N, Buchwald D, Goldberg J The objective of this study was to identify genetic, familial and environmental contributions to the association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and poor health. A community sample of 1852 twin pairs was assessed for symptoms of PTSD [with the Impact of Events Scale (IES)] and […]

Watson NF, Goldberg J, Arguelles LM, Buchwald D To better understand the relationships of insomnia, sleepiness, and obesity, investigators conducted a classical twin study utilizing the community-based University of Washington Twin Registry. The dataset was comprised of 1042 monozygotic and 828 dizygotic twin pairs. Twins were, on average, 32 years old; 61% were women, and 19.5% were obese, […]

Hallstrand TS, Fischer ME, Wurfel MM, Afari N, Buchwald D, Goldberg J Asthma and obesity are common conditions that are strongly associated. This association might be due to shared genetic or environmental causes. We sought to determine whether a shared genetic cause is responsible for the association between asthma and obesity and to estimate the magnitude […]