Racial differences in heritability of cigarette smoking in adolescents and young adults

Abstract

Introduction Although epidemiologic studies suggest low levels of cigarette use among African American adolescents relative to White U.S. adolescents, it is not known whether this may be due to racial differences in the relative contribution of genes and environment to cigarette use initiation and progression to regular use. Methods Using data from White (n=2,665) and African American (n=809) twins and full siblings sampled in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent, we fitted age-, sex- and race-specific variance decomposition models to estimate the magnitude of genetic and environmental effects on cigarette use initiation and cigarette use quantity in Whites and African Americans across adolescence and adulthood. We employ a causal-contingent-common pathway model to estimate the amount of variance explained in quantity of cigarettes smoked contingent on cigarette use initiation. Results African Americans had lower cigarette use prevalence from adolescence through adulthood, and used cigarettes less heavily than Whites. Race-specific causal-contingent-common pathway models indicate that racial differences in genetic and environmental contributions to cigarette use initiation and cigarette use quantities are not present in adolescence but appear in young adulthood. Additive genetic factors were an important risk factor for cigarette use initiation for White but less so for African American young adults and adults. Conclusions Genetic and environmental contributions for cigarette use are similar by race in adolescence. In adulthood, genes have a stronger influence for cigarette use among White adolescents while the influence of the environment is minimal. For African Americans, both genetic and environmental influences are important in young adulthood and adulthood.

Missing compared to what? Revisiting heritability, genes and culture

“…That heritability of a trait estimated from correlations between relatives is specific to the population in which the trait was assessed has been known for decades [ 50 , 51 ]. Cigarette smoking in U.S. adolescents and young adults is an example where twin-based heritability differs between whites and African-Americans [ 67 ]. A recent analysis of eight phenotypes on genomic data from the 1000 Genomes Project reference panel showed that such summary statistics as polygenic risk scores or heritability, derived from a GWAS in one population (e.g.…”

Familial and Special Twin Influences on Cigarette Use Initiation

“…A second limitation of our study has to do with the small sample size in each of the sibling groups; in particular, the half-siblings part of the Add Health study that could have contributed to the wide confidence intervals. Lastly, although previous work suggests that there exist racial and/or ethnic differences in the degree to which genetic and shared environmental factors contribute to cigarette use (Bares et al, 2016), the small number of African-American twins and siblings available in the sample prevented us from testing both the influence of t 2 and racial/ethnic differences simultaneously.…”

The Type and Timing of Child Maltreatment as Predictors of Adolescent Cigarette Smoking Trajectories

“…About 55% of the sample was Black, 25% was White, 7% was Hispanic, and the remaining 13% was other race. Based on previous studies consistently indicating higher rates of cigarette use among White U.S. adolescents (Bares, Kendler, & Maes, 2016;Johnston et al, 2018), race was dichotomized as 0 = Non-White and 1 = White. Based on empirical evidence suggesting family and peer cigarette use as predictors of adolescent cigarette use (Ennett et al, 2008;Gilman et al, 2009), family cigarette use and peer cigarette use were controlled for in the model.…”