Assortative mating with respect to physical characteristics

Spuhler, J. N.

doi:10.1080/19485565.1968.9987763

Cited by 227 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This is, however, an unrealistic assumption as assortative mating, according to several physiological, social and psychological traits, has been well demonstrated. 49,50 Assortative mating can be because of phenotypic assortment, referring to the preference to marry somebody with similar characteristics. This type of assortative mating may inflate heritability estimates in twin studies as it generates a correlation between spouses' genotypes and thus increases the genetic correlations within DZ twins and ordinary siblings above 0.5, as assumed in the used quantitative genetic models.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The genetic and environmental influences on childhood obesity: a systematic review of twin and adoption studies

et al. 2009

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In this systematic review, we aimed to collect together all previous twin and adoption studies on childhood and adolescent obesity up to the age of 18 years. Using several sources, we identified nine twin and five adoption studies; all of these studies had used relative weight as an indicator of obesity. Except the two twin studies from the Korean population, all studies represented Caucasian populations. In a meta-analysis of these twin studies, we found that genetic factors had a strong effect on the variation of body mass index (BMI) at all ages. The common environmental factors showed a substantial effect in mid-childhood, but this effect disappeared at adolescence. Adoption studies supported the role of family environment in childhood obesity as correlations were found between adoptees and adoptive parents; however, correlations were substantially stronger between parents and their biological offspring, further supporting the importance of genetic factors. In the future, more studies implementing genetic and environmental measures into twin models are needed as they allow estimation of the proportion of total genetic variation explained by candidate genes and analyses of gene-environment interactions. More studies of genetic architecture in non-Caucasian populations, of gene-environment interactions, and of body composition and body fat distribution are needed. IntroductionChildhood obesity is one of the major public health problems in the modern world. In the period [2003][2004][2005][2006], 32% of the US children were classified as obese or overweight, 1 and increasing trends in childhood obesity are seen all over the world. 2 These results are especially alarming as overweight children show a high risk of becoming obese adults. 3,4 Childhood is an important period of life for health interventions as health-related behaviors are just in formation, and it seems possible to intervene for preventing the development of obesity. 5 Thus, it is crucial to further understand the background mechanisms of childhood obesity to find even more effective measures to prevent it before it begins to produce more or less irreversible health damages.Both genetic and environmental factors will probably contribute to childhood obesity. 6 Family studies have shown that obesity runs in families, although more detailed twin, adoption and family studies have shown that genetic differences between individuals explain a major proportion of the within-population variation in body mass index (BMI, kg m À2 ) in adulthood. [7][8][9] It is probable that genetic factors have an important role in childhood obesity also, but their role may be different or they may result from other genes than those that operate in adulthood. 10 The environmental factors shared by family members, such as co-twins in twin studies, have shown only a slight effect on the variation of adult BMI. 7,8 However, they may have a more important role in childhood, where parents and their offspring live together and where siblings obviously have a much greater opportu...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The genetic and environmental influences on childhood obesity: a systematic review of twin and adoption studies

et al. 2009

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“…It appears that both ~ and El make substantial contributions to variance in both males and females but that these will differ in both relative and absolute size. Assortative mating is negligible [5,13] . A model allowing different El and DR parameters (and also D RMF ) for males and females does not adequately account for the data (x~ = 11.92, P = 0.036) but when separate El parameters are also included in the model there is a large reduction of X~ = 10.34 to X § = 1.58 and the following estimates are obtained: …”

Section: Head Breadthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex Differences in the Inheritance of Some Anthropometric Characters in Twins

Clarke

Jardine

Martin

et al. 1980

Acta genet. med. gemellol.: twin res.

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Biometrical genetical techniques have been applied to the analysis of certain anthropometric characters measured in 134 pairs of adult twins. After allowing for assortative mating it appears that there is a family environment (E2 ) component for variation in height larger than previously reported. "Fatness" traits -weight, ponderal index, and skinfold thickness -all show higher heritabilities in males and substantial Ez components in females, and reasons for this are discussed. The same is true for cephalic index and forearm length but the reason for these differences is not so obvious. Head length shows a much higher heritability than head breadth. A larger sample of DZ opposite-sex pairs would allow more powerful discrimination, but the variety of patterns of variation revealed by the modelfitting approach used here justify its use over more traditional techniques.

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“…28,29 A high regional mobility in the later cohorts may have increased assortative mating, because opportunities to find a partner were better. This bias should weaken the estimated heritability, because it overestimates the effect of environmental factors by strengthening the correlation within dizygotic twins.…”

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confidence: 99%

Relative effect of genetic and environmental factors on body height: differences across birth cohorts among Finnish men and women

Silventoinen

Kaprio²,

Lahelma³

et al. 2000

Am J Public Health

183

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Objectives. This study examined the change in heritability of adult body height across birth cohorts in Finland.Methods. In 1981, cross-sectional questionnaires were completed by 10 968 twin pairs born before 1958. The effect of genetic factors was estimated via genetic modeling. Conclusions. Heritability of height increased across Finnish birth cohorts born in the first half of this century and leveled off after World War II. Environmental factors, compared with genetic factors, appear to be more important among women than men.

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Assortative mating with respect to physical characteristics

Cited by 227 publications

References 14 publications

The genetic and environmental influences on childhood obesity: a systematic review of twin and adoption studies

The genetic and environmental influences on childhood obesity: a systematic review of twin and adoption studies

Sex Differences in the Inheritance of Some Anthropometric Characters in Twins

Relative effect of genetic and environmental factors on body height: differences across birth cohorts among Finnish men and women

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