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Published January 1, 2016 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Genetic and environmental influences on height from infancy to early adulthood: An individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts

Creators

  • 1. Univ Helsinki, Dept Social Res, Helsinki, Finland
  • 2. Mokpo Natl Univ, Dept Educ, Jeonnam, South Korea
  • 3. Osaka City Univ, Dept Publ Hlth Nursing, Osaka 558, Japan
  • 4. Univ Southern Denmark, Dept Publ Hlth Epidemiol Biostat & Biodemog, Danish Twin Registry, Odense, Denmark
  • 5. Osaka Univ, Grad Sch Med, Osaka, Japan
  • 6. Karolinska Inst, Dept Med Epidemiol & Biostat, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 7. Ishikawa Prefectural Nursing Univ, Dept Hlth Sci, Kahoku, Ishikawa, Japan
  • 8. Natl Ctr Epidemiol Surveillance & Hlth Promot, Ist Super Sanita, Rome, Italy
  • 9. Univ Madeira, Dept Phys Educ & Sport, Funchal, Portugal
  • 10. Univ Porto, Fac Sport, CIFI2D, Rua Campo Alegre 823, P-4100 Oporto, Portugal
  • 11. Qingdao Ctr Dis Control & Prevent, Dept Noncommunicable Dis Prevent, Qingdao, Peoples R China
  • 12. Univ Basque Country, UPV EHU, Dept Genet Phys Anthropol & Anim Physiol, Leioa, Spain

Description

Height variation is known to be determined by both genetic and environmental factors, but a systematic description of how their influences differ by sex, age and global regions is lacking. We conducted an individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts from 20 countries, including 180,520 paired measurements at ages 1-19 years. The proportion of height variation explained by shared environmental factors was greatest in early childhood, but these effects remained present until early adulthood. Accordingly, the relative genetic contribution increased with age and was greatest in adolescence (up to 0.83 in boys and 0.76 in girls). Comparing geographic-cultural regions (Europe, North-America and Australia, and East-Asia), genetic variance was greatest in North-America and Australia and lowest in East-Asia, but the relative proportion of genetic variation was roughly similar across these regions. Our findings provide further insights into height variation during childhood and adolescence in populations representing different ethnicities and exposed to different environments.

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