2014

International Network of Twin Registries (INTR): Building a Platform for International Collaboration.

Buchwald D, Kaprio J, Hopper J, Sung J, Goldberg J, Fortier I, Busjahn A, Sumathipala A, Cozen W, Mack T, Craig J, Harris J The International Network of Twin Registries (INTR) aims to foster scientific collaboration and promote twin research on a global scale by working to expand the resources of twin registries around the […]

Stepping towards causation in studies of neighborhood and environmental effects: How twin research can overcome problems of selection and reverse causation

Duncan GE, Mills B, Strachan E, Hurvitz P, Huang R, Moudon AV, Turkheimer E No causal evidence is available to translate associations between neighborhood characteristics and health outcomes into beneficial changes to built environments. Observed associations may be causal or result from uncontrolled confounds related to family upbringing. Twin designs can help neighborhood effects studies […]

A twin study of differences in the response of plasma ghrelin to a milkshake preload in restrained eaters

Myhre R, Kratz M, Goldberg J, Polivy J, Melhorn S, Buchwald D, Cummings DE, Schur EA Genetic, physiological, and psychological factors can affect food intake, but twin studies can distinguish inherited from environmental contributors. We examined the influence of attempted cognitive control of eating (“restrained eating”) on levels of appetite-regulating hormones. Sixteen female, monozygotic twin pairs, […]

Does caregiving cause psychological distress? The case for familial and genetic vulnerabilities in female twins

Vitaliano P, Strachan E, Dansie E, Goldberg J, Buchwald D Informal caregiving can be deleterious to mental health, but research results are inconsistent and may reflect an interaction between caregiving and vulnerability to stress.We examined psychological distress among 1,228 female caregiving and non-caregiving twins. By examining monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs discordant for caregiving, we […]

Salivary cortisol and cold pain sensitivity in female twins

Godfrey KM, Strachan E, Dansie E, Crofford LJ, Buchwald D, Goldberg J, Poeschla B, Succop A, Noonan C, Afari N There is a dearth of knowledge about the link between cortisol and pain sensitivity. We examined the association of salivary cortisol with indices of cold pain sensitivity in 198 female twins and explored the role of […]

Moderation of Genetic and Environmental Influences on Diurnal Preference by Age in Adult Twins

Barclay NL, Watson NF, Goldberg J, Buchwald D Diurnal preference changes across the lifespan. However, the mechanisms underlying this age-related shift are poorly understood. The aim of this twin study was to determine the extent to which genetic and environmental influences on diurnal preference are moderated by age. Seven hundred and sixty-eight monozygotic and 674 dizygotic […]

Sleep duration and depressive symptoms: a gene-environment interaction

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 […]

Emerging technologies for assessing physical activity behaviors in space and time

Hurvitz PM, Moudon AV, Kang B, Saelens BE, Duncan GE Precise measurement of physical activity is important for health research, providing a better understanding of activity location, type, duration, and intensity. This article describes a novel suite of tools to measure and analyze physical activity behaviors in spatial epidemiology research. We use individual-level, high-resolution, objective […]