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 […]
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 […]
Watson NF, Buchwald D, Delrow JJ, Altemeier WA, Vitiello MV, Pack AI, Bamshad M, Noonan C, Gharib S. Habitual short sleep duration is associated with adverse metabolic, cardiovascular, and inflammatory effects. Co-twin study methodologies account for familial (e.g., genetics and shared environmental) confounding, allowing assessment of subtle environmental effects, such as the effect of habitual […]
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 […]
Wrede JE, Mengel-From J, Buchwald D, Vitiello MV, Bamshad M, Noonan C, Christiansen L, Christensen K, Watson NF Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number is an important component of mitochondrial function and varies with age, disease, and environmental factors. We aimed to determine whether mtDNA copy number varies with habitual differences in sleep duration within pairs […]
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 […]
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, Buchwald D, Harden KP The population-based University of Washington Twin Registry (UWTR) was used to examine (1) genetic influences on chronobiology and (2) whether these genetic factors influence alcohol-use phenotypes. We used a reduced Horne-Östberg Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ) to survey UWTR participants for diurnal preference. Frequency and quantity of alcohol use, as well as […]
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 […]
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; […]
Watson NF, Buchwald D, Noonan C, Vitiello MV, Pack AI, Goldberg J We used the community-based University of Washington Twin Registry to investigate the genetic association between circadian type and sleep duration. Habitual sleep duration was obtained by self-report and circadian type was measured using a reduced 5-item Horne–Östberg Morningness–Eveningness questionnaire. Univariate and bivariate genetic […]
PI: Nathaniel WatsonProject Number: 5K23HL083350Project Dates: 5/01/2007–3/31/2012 This K23 award will allow Dr. Watson to become an investigator proficient in genetic epidemiology and the design and conduct of interdisciplinary research on gene-environment interactions in sleep medicine. The training and research activities will focus on complex environmental and genetic influences on habitual sleep duration and the impact […]
