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
8312729
TITLE
Genetic contribution to risk of smoking initiation: comparisons across birth cohorts and across cultures.
ABSTRACT
Self-report data on smoking initiation (whether the respondent admitted ever having smoked) were obtained from three large adult twin samples (Australia, N = 3,808 pairs; Virginia, N = 2,145 pairs; AARP, N = 3,620 pairs). Data were broken down into birth cohorts, and genetic models were fitted to test whether the decline, in more recent birth cohorts, in the percentage of individuals becoming smokers has led to a change in the relative contributions of genes and environment to risk of becoming a smoker. Despite a marked change in the proportion of male respondents who reported ever having smoked, we found no evidence for cohort differences in genetic and environmental effects (no Genotype x Cohort interaction). Significant differences in genetic and environmental parameters were found between sexes, and between the Australian and the two U.S. samples. In the U.S. samples, estimates of the genetic contribution to risk of becoming a smoker were 60% in men, 51% in women. In the Australian sample, heritability estimates were 33% in men, but 67% in women. Significant shared environmental effects on smoking initiation also were found, accounting for 23% of the variance in U.S. men, 28% of the variance in U.S. women, 39% of the variance in Australian men, and 15% of the variance in Australian women. In models that allowed for the environmental impact of cotwin smoking on a twin's risk of smoking initiation, estimates of the direct genetic contribution to risk of smoking initiation were comparable or higher (49-58% in U.S. women and 71% in Australian women; 58-61% in U.S. men, and 37% in Australian men).
DATE PUBLISHED
1993
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 1993/01/01
medline 1993/01/01 00:01
entrez 1993/01/01 00:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Heath AC Heath A C AC Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110.
Cates R Cates R R
Martin NG Martin N G NG
Meyer J Meyer J J
Hewitt JK Hewitt J K JK
Neale MC Neale M C MC
Eaves LJ Eaves L J LJ
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 5
ISSUE: 3
TITLE: Journal of substance abuse
ISOABBREVIATION: J Subst Abuse
YEAR: 1993
MONTH:
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0899-3289
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: J Subst Abuse
COUNTRY: UNITED STATES
ISSNLINKING: 0899-3289
NLMUNIQUEID: 9001404
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Comparative Study
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
ADAMHA AA03539 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
ADAMHA AA06781 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
ADAMHA DA05588 NIDA NIH HHS United States
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adult
Aged
Australia
Cohort Studies
Cross-Cultural Comparison
Diseases in Twins psychology
Female psychology
Humans psychology
Male psychology
Middle Aged psychology
Models, Genetic psychology
Risk Factors psychology
Smoking psychology
Social Environment psychology
Twins, Dizygotic psychology
Twins, Monozygotic psychology
United States psychology
Virginia psychology
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's