Body weight in the Finnish Twin Cohort

Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 1990:10 Suppl 1:S33-6. doi: 10.1016/0168-8227(90)90137-i.

Abstract

We estimated genetic and environmental variance of BMI among 7245 non-pregnant MZ and DZ pairs of the same sex from the population-based Finnish Twin Cohort. The contributions of additive genetic effects, shared and non-shared environmental effects on age-adjusted BMI-variance were estimated by LISREL structural equation models. Genetic effects contribute 72% in men and 66.4% in non-pregnant women of total variance, while 27.8% of variance among men and 33.6% among women is due to non-shared environmental effects. Shared environmental effects were nonsignificant (0% for women and 0.2% for men). Similar values were obtained for hereditary and non-shared environmental effects, when shared environmental effects were not included in the model. The inclusion of pregnant women did not substantially change heritability estimates.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Body Mass Index
  • Body Weight / genetics*
  • Cohort Studies
  • Environment
  • Female
  • Finland / epidemiology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Obesity / epidemiology
  • Obesity / genetics
  • Obesity / physiopathology
  • Twins, Dizygotic / genetics*
  • Twins, Monozygotic / genetics*