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Are Twins and Singletons Comparable? A Study of Disease-related and Lifestyle Characteristics in Adult Women
Open accessAbstract
The classic twin study is sometimes described as "the perfect natural experiment" for the investigation of the aetiology of complex disease, but assumptions of the twin design need to be empirically tested if their results are to be considered unbiased and representative of singleton populations. In this study comparisons of disease and prevalence of lifestyle characteristics have been made between twin participants in the St Thomas' Hospital UK adult twin registry, the largest twin volunteer register in the UK for the study of diseases of ageing, and a parallel population-based study of singleton women. The only differences found were for weight, where monozygotic (MZ) twins were lighter and had a smaller variance than dizygotic (DZ) twins and singletons. For the other variables studied, volunteer twins were not found to differ from age-matched singleton women in distribution or prevalence of: bone mineral density, osteoarthritis, blood pressure, hypertensive drug use, height, history of hysterectomy and ovariectomy, menopausal status and current alcohol and overall tobacco consumption. We conclude that the results of twin studies can be generalised to singleton populations for these measures and disease outcomes.
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“For the study of both personality and somatic health, twins have been shown to be representative for the general population [31, 32]”
From Personality disorders are important risk factors for disability pensioning (2014) · cites this paper as [31]
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Self-citationHeritability of Adult Body Height: A Comparative Study of Twin Cohorts in Eight Countries
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Metadata
- Authors
- Andrew, T., Hart, D. J., Snieder, H., de Lange, M., Spector, T. D., & MacGregor, A. J.
- Affiliations
- St Thomas' Hospital (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Andrew, Toby
- Venue
- Twin Research
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2001-12-01
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 464-477
- ISSN
- 1369-0523 (ISSN-L)
- 0000-0000
- OpenAlex
- W2015612792
- Cited by
- 440
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 36 · 2012: 38
- FWCI
- 12.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Twin Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust
- Chronic Disease Research Foundation
- British Heart Foundation
- Versus Arthritis (17489)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Assisted Reproductive Technology and Twin Pregnancy
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Keywords
- monozygotic twins, dizygotic twins, lifestyle characteristics, disease prevalence, body weight, bone mineral density, osteoarthritis, blood pressure, menopause, hysterectomy, ovariectomy, alcohol consumption, smoking, twin registry
- MeSH terms
- Alcohol Drinking, Antihypertensive Agents, Blood Pressure, Body Height, Female, Humans, Life Style, Menopause, Middle Aged, Morbidity, Osteoarthritis, Smoking, Social Class, Twins, Bone Density
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