Current Studies
Survey Studies
The Enrollment Survey is completed by all twin pairs to enroll in the Washington State Twin Registry. Twins are asked to provide their cotwin’s contact information on the survey. This allows us to invite their cotwin to participate as well. The survey provides researchers with basic health information which they can use to publish papers, apply for grants, and recruit for studies.
The survey has evolved over the years. New questions that may be of interest to researchers have been added. Questions which do not provide researchers with the best information have been changed or removed. For example, the first Enrollment Survey, which was sent out from 2002-2007, included a question about race that only allowed respondents to choose one answer and included Hispanic/Latino as a race option. This question was updated in 2007 to reflect current NIH & US Census guidelines for reporting race and ethnicity. It now allows respondents to choose more than one answer and to report ethnicity (Hispanic/Latino) separately.
- Associations between changes in resilient coping and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms Sinclair VG, Adams SM, Dietrich M. The pervasive, damaging nature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) presents enormous clinical challenges. Understanding the relationship between patients’ perceptions of PTSD symptoms and resilient coping strategies may prompt investigation of clinical interventions that improve adaptive, resilient coping skills. In this study, we examined whether changes in resilient coping were […]
- Sleep Duration and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms: A Twin Study McCall CA, Turkheimer E, Tsang S, Avery A, Duncan GE, Watson NF. Study Objectives Long and short sleep duration are associated with greater risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, it is unknown how genetic and environmental influences impact this relationship. Thus, we investigated the association between sleep duration and PTSD symptoms using twin […]
- Differential models of twin correlations in skew for body-mass index (BMI) Tsang S, Duncan GE, Dinescu D, Turkheimer E. Background Body Mass Index (BMI), like most human phenotypes, is substantially heritable. However, BMI is not normally distributed; the skew appears to be structural, and increases as a function of age. Moreover, twin correlations for BMI commonly violate the assumptions of the most common variety of the […]
- Examination of Cross-Sectional Associations of Neighborhood Deprivation and Alcohol Outlet Density With Hazardous Drinking Using a Twin Design Rhew IC, Kosterman R, Duncan GE, Mair C. Objective The purpose of this study was to examine whether neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and alcohol outlet density are associated with hazardous drinking using a co-twin design to control for confounding because of genetic and shared environmental factors. Method The study sample included cross-sectional data from 1,996 same-sex […]
- Education in Twins and Their Parents Across Birth Cohorts Over 100 years: An Individual-Level Pooled Analysis of 42-Twin Cohorts Silventoinen K, Jelenkovic A, Hopper JL, Busjahn A, Cozen W, Mack TM, Sumathipala A, Harris JR, Goldberg JH, Harden KP, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Turkheimer E, Kaprio J, et al. Whether monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins differ from each other in a variety of phenotypes is important for genetic twin modeling and for inferences […]
- Cross-sectional association between soda consumption and body mass index in a community-based sample of twins Eney AE, Tsang S, Delaney JA, Turkheimer E, Duncan GE. Background Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, such as soda, have been shown to play an important role in weight gain. Although soda consumption has been associated with body mass index (BMI) in many studies, it has been difficult to ascertain a true causal relationship between soda […]
- Differences in genetic and environmental variation in adult body mass index by sex, age, time period, and region: an individual-based pooled analysis of 40 twin cohorts Silventoinen K, Jelenkovic A, Cozen W, Mack T, Sumathipala A, Christensen K, Busjahn A, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Goldberg JH, Hopper JL, Sung J, Turkheimer E, Kaprio J, et al. Background Genes and the environment contribute to variation in adult body mass index [BMI (in kg/m2)], but factors modifying these variance components are poorly understood. […]
- Neighborhood walkability moderates the association between low back pain and physical activity: A co-twin control study Zadro JR, Shirley D, Pinheiro MB, Bauman A, Duncan GE, Ferreira PH. The aim of this study was to investigate whether neighborhood walkability moderates the association between low back pain (LBP) and physical activity (PA), using a co-twin design to control for genetics and shared environmental factors. A cross-sectional analysis was performed on 10,228 twins […]
- Does the sex of one’s co-twin affect height and BMI in adulthood? A study of dizygotic adult twins from 31 cohorts Bogl LH, Jelenkovic A, Christensen K, Cozen W, Mack TM, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Hopper JL, Silventoinen K, Kaprio J, et al. Background The comparison of traits in twins from opposite-sex (OS) and same-sex (SS) dizygotic twin pairs is considered a proxy measure of prenatal hormone exposure. To examine possible prenatal hormonal influences on anthropometric […]
- Neighborhood deprivation and depression in adult twins: genetics and gene×environment interaction Strachan E, Duncan G, Horn E, Turkheimer E. Background Depression is a significant problem and it is vital to understand its underlying causes and related policy implications. Neighborhood characteristics are implicated in depression but the nature of this association is unclear. Unobserved or unmeasured factors may confound the relationship. This study addresses confounding in a […]
- Genetic and environmental influences on adult human height across birth cohorts from 1886 to 1994 Jelenkovic A, Sumathipala A, Christensen K, Hopper JL, Cozen W, Mack TM, Sung J, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Harris JR, Goldberg JH, Kaprio J, Silventoinen K, et al. Human height variation is determined by genetic and environmental factors, but it remains unclear whether their influences differ across birth-year cohorts. We conducted an individual-based pooled analysis […]
- Genetic and environmental effects on body mass index from infancy to the onset of adulthood: an individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts participating in the COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins) study Silventoinen K, Jelenkovic A, Busjahn A, Cozen W, Mack TM, Craig JM, Harden KP, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Goldberg JH, Kaprio J, et al. Background Both genetic and environmental factors are known to affect body mass index (BMI), but detailed understanding of how their effects differ during childhood and adolescence is lacking. Objectives We analyzed […]
- Genetic and environmental influences on height from infancy to early adulthood: An individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts Jelenkovic A, Craig JM, Sumathipala A, Harden KP, Cozen W, Mack TM, Hopper JL, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Sung J, Harris JR, Busjahn A, Goldberg JH, Kaprio J, Silventoinen K, et al. Height variation is known to be determined by both genetic and environmental factors, but a systematic description of how their influences differ by sex, age and […]
- Socioeconomic modifiers of genetic and environmental influences on body mass index in adult twins Dinescu D, Horn EE, Duncan G, Turkheimer E Objective Individual measures of socioeconomic status (SES) suppress genetic variance in body mass index (BMI). Our objective was to examine the influence of both individual-level (i.e., educational attainment, household income) and macrolevel (i.e., neighborhood socioeconomic advantage) SES indicators on genetic contributions to BMI. Method The study used […]
- Sleep Duration and Area-Level Deprivation in Twins Watson NF, Horn E, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Vitiello MV, Turkheimer E Study Objectives We used quantitative genetic models to assess whether area-level deprivation as indicated by the Singh Index predicts shorter sleep duration and modifies its underlying genetic and environmental contributions. Methods Participants were 4,218 adult twin pairs (2,377 monozygotic and 1,841 dizygotic) from […]
- Zygosity Differences in Height and Body Mass Index of Twins From Infancy to Old Age: A Study of the CODATwins Project Jelenkovic A, Craig JM, Sumathipala A, Harden KP, Cozen W, Mack TM, Hopper JL, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Sung J, Harris JR, Busjahn A, Goldberg JH, Kaprio J, Silventoinen K, et al. A trend toward greater body size in dizygotic (DZ) than in monozygotic (MZ) twins has been suggested by some but not all studies, and this difference […]
- The CODATwins Project The Cohort Description of Collaborative Project of Development of Anthropometrical Measures in Twins to Study Macro-Environmental Variation in Genetic and Environmental Effects on Anthropometric Traits Silventoinen K, Craig JM, Sumathipala A, Harden KP, Cozen W, Mack TM, Hopper JL, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Sung J, Harris JR, Busjahn A, Goldberg JH, Kaprio J, et al. […]
- Associations Between Fast-Food Consumption and Body Mass Index: A Cross-Sectional Study in Adult Twins Cohen-Cline H, Lau R, Moudon AV, Turkheimer E, Duncan GE Obesity is a substantial health problem in the United States, and is associated with many chronic diseases. Previous studies have linked poor dietary habits to obesity. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify the association between body mass index (BMI) and fast-food consumption among 669 same-sex […]
- Behavioral and Environmental Modification of the Genetic Influence on Body Mass Index: A Twin Study Horn EE, Turkheimer E, Strachan E, Duncan GE Body mass index (BMI) has a strong genetic basis, with a heritability around 0.75, but is also influenced by numerous behavioral and environmental factors. Aspects of the built environment (e.g., environmental walkability) are hypothesized to influence obesity by directly affecting BMI, by facilitating or inhibiting behaviors such […]
- Access to green space, physical activity and mental health: a twin study Cohen-Cline H, Turkheimer E, Duncan GE Increasing global urbanisation has resulted in a greater proportion of the world’s population becoming exposed to risk factors unique to urban areas, and understanding these effects on public health is essential. The aim of this study was to examine the association between access to green space and mental health […]
- Quasi-causal associations of physical activity and neighborhood walkability with body mass index: A twin study 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% […]
- 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 […]
- Sleep duration and body mass index in twins: a gene-environment interaction 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; […]
- Genetic and environmental influences on residential location in the US 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 […]
- The comorbidity of self-reported chronic fatigue syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, and traumatic symptoms 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 […]
- Temporomandibular disorder-type pain and migraine headache in women: a preliminary twin study 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 […]
- Depression and obesity: Do shared genes explain the relationship? 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 […]
- Chronic pain, overweight, and obesity: Findings from a community-based twin registry 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 […]
- A twin study of depression and migraine: Evidence for a shared genetic vulnerability 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 […]
- Are post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and temporomandibular pain associated? Findings from a community-based twin registry 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 […]
- Unique environmental effects on physical activity participation: a twin study 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 […]
- Twin analyses of fatigue 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 […]
- Feeling bad in more ways than one: comorbidity patterns of medically unexplained and psychiatric conditions 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 […]
- University of Washington Twin Registry: construction and characteristics of a community-based twin registry 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 […]
- A twin study of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and chronic widespread pain 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 […]
- Is the association between posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and poor health due to a common familial or genetic factor? 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 […]
- Genetic and environmental influences on insomnia, daytime sleepiness, and obesity in twins 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, […]
- Genetic pleiotropy between asthma and obesity in a community-based sample of twins 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 […]
- Positive lifestyle behaviours and emotional health factors are associated with low back pain resilience Roberts KE, Beckenkamp PR, Ferreira ML, Duncan GE, Calais-Ferreira L, Gatt JM, Ferreira P. Purpose To evaluate the relationship between lifestyle behaviours, emotional health factors, and low back pain (LBP) resilience. Methods This retrospective longitudinal study utilised 1,065 twins with a recent history of LBP from the Washington State Twin Registry. A lifestyle behaviour score […]
- The pillars of health: influence of multiple lifestyle behaviors on body mass index and depressive symptoms in adult twins Duncan GE, Avery AR, Tsang S, Watson NF, Williams BD, Turkheimer E. Background Guidelines promoting healthy lifestyles are cornerstones of chronic disease prevention and treatment. The purpose of this study is to investigate independent and joint associations of five key health behaviors with health outcomes (body mass index (BMI kg/m2) and depressive symptoms) in adult […]
- Central and Peripheral Symptoms in Network Analysis are Differentially Heritable A Twin Study of Anxious Misery Olatunji BO, Christian C, Strachan E, Levinson CA. Background Evidence suggests that depression and anxiety disorders are genetically based. Although symptoms of these internalizing disorders tend to correlate, the degree to which the related symptoms are heritable is unclear. This overlap has been conceptualized as Anxious Misery and existing research examining similar constructs of negative […]
- Associations between changes in resilient coping and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms Sinclair VG, Adams SM, Dietrich M. The pervasive, damaging nature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) presents enormous clinical challenges. Understanding the relationship between patients’ perceptions of PTSD symptoms and resilient coping strategies may prompt investigation of clinical interventions that improve adaptive, resilient coping skills. In this study, we examined whether changes in resilient coping were […]
- Insomnia and posttraumatic stress symptoms: Evidence of shared etiology Cox RC, Taylor S, Strachan E, Olatunji BO. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and insomnia are comorbid clinical conditions that are thought to result from genetic and environmental effects. Though studies have established the heritability of these disorders independently, no study to date has examined the genetic contributions to the relation between insomnia and PTSD symptoms […]
- Cohort Profile: TWINS study of environment, lifestyle behaviours and health Duncan GE, Avery A, Hurvitz PM, Moudon AV, Tsang S, Turkheimer E. The role of built and social environments in supporting healthy lifestyles has received increased attention over the past decade, as research and prevention paradigms have shifted from a focus on individual-level behaviour change to macro-level influences embedded within social-ecological models of health that […]
- Sleep Duration and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms: A Twin Study McCall CA, Turkheimer E, Tsang S, Avery A, Duncan GE, Watson NF. Study Objectives Long and short sleep duration are associated with greater risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, it is unknown how genetic and environmental influences impact this relationship. Thus, we investigated the association between sleep duration and PTSD symptoms using twin […]
- Probabilistic walking models using built environment and sociodemographic predictors Moudon AV, Huang R, Stewart OT, Cohen-Cline H, Noonan C, Hurvitz PM, Duncan GE. Background Individual sociodemographic and home neighborhood built environment (BE) factors influence the probability of engaging in health-enhancing levels of walking or moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Methods are needed to parsimoniously model the associations. Methods Participants included 2392 adults drawn from a […]
- Heritability of Type 2 Diabetes in the Washington State Twin Registry Avery AR, Duncan GE Approximately 12% of U.S. adults have type 2 diabetes (T2D). Diagnosed T2D is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors including age and lifestyle. In adults 45 years and older, the Discordant Twin (DISCOTWIN) consortium of twin registries from Europe and Australia showed a moderate-to-high contribution of genetic factors […]
- A twin study of genetic influences on nephrolithiasis in women and men Goldfarb DS, Avery AR, Beara-Lasic L, Duncan GE, Goldberg J. Background Nephrolithiasis is a complex phenotype influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Previously we found a genetic component to stone disease using a sample of male twin pairs. We now report on the genetic contribution to stones in a sample of female and male […]
- Examination of Cross-Sectional Associations of Neighborhood Deprivation and Alcohol Outlet Density With Hazardous Drinking Using a Twin Design Rhew IC, Kosterman R, Duncan GE, Mair C. Objective The purpose of this study was to examine whether neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and alcohol outlet density are associated with hazardous drinking using a co-twin design to control for confounding because of genetic and shared environmental factors. Method The study sample included cross-sectional data from 1,996 same-sex […]
- Education in Twins and Their Parents Across Birth Cohorts Over 100 years: An Individual-Level Pooled Analysis of 42-Twin Cohorts Silventoinen K, Jelenkovic A, Hopper JL, Busjahn A, Cozen W, Mack TM, Sumathipala A, Harris JR, Goldberg JH, Harden KP, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Turkheimer E, Kaprio J, et al. Whether monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins differ from each other in a variety of phenotypes is important for genetic twin modeling and for inferences […]
- Differences in genetic and environmental variation in adult body mass index by sex, age, time period, and region: an individual-based pooled analysis of 40 twin cohorts Silventoinen K, Jelenkovic A, Cozen W, Mack T, Sumathipala A, Christensen K, Busjahn A, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Goldberg JH, Hopper JL, Sung J, Turkheimer E, Kaprio J, et al. Background Genes and the environment contribute to variation in adult body mass index [BMI (in kg/m2)], but factors modifying these variance components are poorly understood. […]
- Does the sex of one’s co-twin affect height and BMI in adulthood? A study of dizygotic adult twins from 31 cohorts Bogl LH, Jelenkovic A, Christensen K, Cozen W, Mack TM, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Hopper JL, Silventoinen K, Kaprio J, et al. Background The comparison of traits in twins from opposite-sex (OS) and same-sex (SS) dizygotic twin pairs is considered a proxy measure of prenatal hormone exposure. To examine possible prenatal hormonal influences on anthropometric […]
- A Twin Study on Perceived Stress, Depressive Symptoms, and Marriage Beam CR, Dinescu D, Emery R, Turkheimer E. Marriage is associated with reductions in both perceived stress and depressive symptoms, two constructs found to be influenced by common genetic effects. A study of sibling twins was used to test whether marriage decreases the proportion of variance in depressive symptoms accounted for by genetic and environmental […]
- Genetic and environmental influences on adult human height across birth cohorts from 1886 to 1994 Jelenkovic A, Sumathipala A, Christensen K, Hopper JL, Cozen W, Mack TM, Sung J, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Harris JR, Goldberg JH, Kaprio J, Silventoinen K, et al. Human height variation is determined by genetic and environmental factors, but it remains unclear whether their influences differ across birth-year cohorts. We conducted an individual-based pooled analysis […]
- Is Marriage a Buzzkill? A Twin Study of Marital Status and Alcohol Consumption Dinescu D, Turkheimer E, Beam CR, Horn EE, Duncan G, Emery RE. Married adults have consistently been found to drink less than their single or divorced counterparts. This correlation may not be causal, however, as people nonrandomly “select” into marriage and into alcohol use. The current study uses a sample of 2,425 same-sex twin pairs […]
- Resilient Coping Moderates the Effect of Trauma Exposure on Depression Sinclair VG, Wallston KA, Strachan E. Posttraumatic depression rates are increasing in the United States, and there is a great need to identify malleable factors that could moderate posttraumatic depression levels. The purpose of this study was to examine whether resilient coping moderates the effects of trauma exposure on depression, while controlling for neuroticism-an established […]
- Genetic and environmental effects on body mass index from infancy to the onset of adulthood: an individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts participating in the COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins) study Silventoinen K, Jelenkovic A, Busjahn A, Cozen W, Mack TM, Craig JM, Harden KP, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Goldberg JH, Kaprio J, et al. Background Both genetic and environmental factors are known to affect body mass index (BMI), but detailed understanding of how their effects differ during childhood and adolescence is lacking. Objectives We analyzed […]
- Genetic and environmental influences on height from infancy to early adulthood: An individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts Jelenkovic A, Craig JM, Sumathipala A, Harden KP, Cozen W, Mack TM, Hopper JL, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Sung J, Harris JR, Busjahn A, Goldberg JH, Kaprio J, Silventoinen K, et al. Height variation is known to be determined by both genetic and environmental factors, but a systematic description of how their influences differ by sex, age and […]
- Socioeconomic modifiers of genetic and environmental influences on body mass index in adult twins Dinescu D, Horn EE, Duncan G, Turkheimer E Objective Individual measures of socioeconomic status (SES) suppress genetic variance in body mass index (BMI). Our objective was to examine the influence of both individual-level (i.e., educational attainment, household income) and macrolevel (i.e., neighborhood socioeconomic advantage) SES indicators on genetic contributions to BMI. Method The study used […]
- Zygosity Differences in Height and Body Mass Index of Twins From Infancy to Old Age: A Study of the CODATwins Project Jelenkovic A, Craig JM, Sumathipala A, Harden KP, Cozen W, Mack TM, Hopper JL, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Sung J, Harris JR, Busjahn A, Goldberg JH, Kaprio J, Silventoinen K, et al. A trend toward greater body size in dizygotic (DZ) than in monozygotic (MZ) twins has been suggested by some but not all studies, and this difference […]
- The CODATwins Project The Cohort Description of Collaborative Project of Development of Anthropometrical Measures in Twins to Study Macro-Environmental Variation in Genetic and Environmental Effects on Anthropometric Traits Silventoinen K, Craig JM, Sumathipala A, Harden KP, Cozen W, Mack TM, Hopper JL, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Sung J, Harris JR, Busjahn A, Goldberg JH, Kaprio J, et al. […]
- Behavioral and Environmental Modification of the Genetic Influence on Body Mass Index: A Twin Study Horn EE, Turkheimer E, Strachan E, Duncan GE Body mass index (BMI) has a strong genetic basis, with a heritability around 0.75, but is also influenced by numerous behavioral and environmental factors. Aspects of the built environment (e.g., environmental walkability) are hypothesized to influence obesity by directly affecting BMI, by facilitating or inhibiting behaviors such […]
- Access to green space, physical activity and mental health: a twin study Cohen-Cline H, Turkheimer E, Duncan GE Increasing global urbanisation has resulted in a greater proportion of the world’s population becoming exposed to risk factors unique to urban areas, and understanding these effects on public health is essential. The aim of this study was to examine the association between access to green space and mental health […]
- Age at dieting onset, body mass index, and dieting practices: A twin study Enriquez E, Duncan GE, Schur E Using a twin study design, we sought to determine whether an early age at dieting onset is a risk factor for higher adult body mass index (BMI) or use of risky dieting practices, independent of genetic and familial factors. Female twins ages 18-60 years (N=950) from the University of Washington […]
- Current Smoking as a Predictor of Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain in Young Adult Twins Holley AL, Law EF, Tham SW, Myaing M, Noonan C, Strachan E, Palermo TM Chronic pain is common during adolescence and young adulthood and is associated with poor quality of life, depression, and functional disability. Recognizing that chronic pain has significant consequences, it is important to identify modifiable health behaviors that may place young adults […]
- The University of Washington Twin Registry: Poised for the next generation of twin research Strachan E, Hunt C, Afari N, Duncan G, Noonan C, Schur E, Watson N, Goldberg J, Buchwald D The University of Washington Twin Registry is a unique community-based registry of twin pairs who join specifically to participate in scientific research. It was founded in 2002 to serve as a resource for investigators throughout the scientific […]