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.
QIMR Home Page
GenEpi Home Page
About GenEpi
Publications
Contacts
Research
Staff Index
Collaborators
Software Tools
Computing Resources
Studies
Search
GenEpi Intranet
PMID
2252253
TITLE
Genetics of asthma and hay fever in Australian twins.
ABSTRACT
The occurrence of self-reported asthma/wheezing and hay fever among 3,808 pairs of twins from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Twin Registry was examined for evidence of genetic transmission by path analytic methods. The cumulative prevalence of asthma or wheezing was 13.2% and of hay fever, 32%. There were significant correlations in liability to reported disease among twins, and these were higher in monozygotic twins (MZ) (r = 0.65) than in dizygotic twins (DZ) (r = 0.25), and in male MZ twins (r = 0.75) compared with female MZ twins (r = 0.60). Analysis under the assumptions of the classic twin model suggested that there were genetic factors common to asthma and hay fever, with a correlation in genetic liability to the traits of 0.52 for men and 0.65 for women. These genes acted substantially in a nonadditive fashion in men but not in women. As the genetic correlation was significantly less than unity, this implied additional genetic factors influencing either or both diseases individually. The estimated heritability of these diseases was 60 to 70% in this population. Environmental causes of both diseases also were correlated (r = 0.53 for men and 0.33 for women). Cigarette smoking was only weakly associated with wheezing.
DATE PUBLISHED
1990 Dec
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 1990/12/01
medline 1990/12/01 00:01
entrez 1990/12/01 00:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Duffy DL Duffy D L DL Epidemiology Unit, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Darwin, Australia.
Martin NG Martin N G NG
Battistutta D Battistutta D D
Hopper JL Hopper J L JL
Mathews JD Mathews J D JD
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 142
ISSUE: 6 Pt 1
TITLE: The American review of respiratory disease
ISOABBREVIATION: Am. Rev. Respir. Dis.
YEAR: 1990
MONTH: Dec
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN:
ISSNTYPE:
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Am Rev Respir Dis
COUNTRY: UNITED STATES
ISSNLINKING: 0003-0805
NLMUNIQUEID: 0370523
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adult
Asthma genetics
Australia epidemiology
Diseases in Twins genetics
Female genetics
Humans genetics
Male genetics
Models, Genetic genetics
Models, Statistical genetics
Prevalence genetics
Registries genetics
Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal genetics
Twins, Dizygotic genetics
Twins, Monozygotic genetics
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's