Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
17466111
TITLE
Exploring the inter-relationship of smoking age-at-onset, cigarette consumption and smoking persistence: genes or environment?
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND NlmCategory: BACKGROUND
We investigated the genetic and environmental contributions to covariation between smoking age-at-onset, cigarette consumption and smoking persistence.
METHOD NlmCategory: METHODS
Multivariate biometrical modelling methods were applied to questionnaire data from Australian twins and their siblings (14 472 individuals from 6247 families). The contributions of genetic and environmental factors to covariation between the three traits were estimated, allowing for sex differences in both trait prevalence and the magnitude of genetic and environmental effects.
RESULTS NlmCategory: RESULTS
All traits were moderately heritable in males and females (estimates between 0.40 and 0.62), but there were sex differences in the extent to which additive genetic influences were shared across traits. Twin-specific environmental factors accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in smoking age-at-onset in females (0.19) and males (0.12), but had little influence (<0.08) on other traits. Unique environmental factors were estimated to have a moderate influence on smoking age-at-onset (0.17 for females, 0.19 for males), but a stronger influence on other traits (between 0.39 and 0.49).
CONCLUSIONS NlmCategory: CONCLUSIONS
These results provide some insight into observed sex differences in smoking behaviour, and suggest that searching for pleiotropic genes may prove fruitful. However, further work on phenotypic definitions of smoking behaviour, particularly persistence, is warranted.
DATE PUBLISHED
2007 Sep
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
aheadofprint 2007/04/30
pubmed 2007/05/01 09:00
medline 2007/12/11 09:00
entrez 2007/05/01 09:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Morley KI Morley Katherine I KI Genetic Epidemiology Group, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Queensland, Australia. kateM@qimr.edu.au
Lynskey MT Lynskey Michael T MT
Madden PA Madden Pamela A F PA
Treloar SA Treloar Susan A SA
Heath AC Heath Andrew C AC
Martin NG Martin Nicholas G NG
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 37
ISSUE: 9
TITLE: Psychological medicine
ISOABBREVIATION: Psychol Med
YEAR: 2007
MONTH: Sep
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0033-2917
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Psychol Med
COUNTRY: England
ISSNLINKING: 0033-2917
NLMUNIQUEID: 1254142
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
AA07535 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
AA07728 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
CA75581 NCI NIH HHS United States
DA00272 NIDA NIH HHS United States
DA12540 NIDA NIH HHS United States
DA12854 NIDA NIH HHS United States
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Australia
Cohort Studies
Cross-Sectional Studies
Diseases in Twins psychology
Female psychology
Genetic Predisposition to Disease genetics
Genotype genetics
Humans genetics
Male genetics
Middle Aged genetics
Multivariate Analysis genetics
Phenotype genetics
Sex Factors genetics
Smoking psychology
Social Environment psychology
Statistics as Topic psychology
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's