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How heritable is individual susceptibility to death? The results of an analysis of survival data on Danish, Swedish and Finnish twins.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Iachine, IA; Holm, NV; Harris, JR; Begun, AZ; Iachina, MK; Laitinen, M; Kaprio, J; Yashin, AI
Published in: Twin research : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies
December 1998

Molecular epidemiological studies confirm a substantial contribution of individual genes to variability in susceptibility to disease and death for humans. To evaluate the contribution of all genes to susceptibility and to estimate individual survival characteristics, survival data on related individuals (eg twins or other relatives) are needed. Correlated gamma-frailty models of bivariate survival are used in a joint analysis of survival data on more than 31,000 pairs of Danish, Swedish and Finnish male and female twins using the maximum likelihood method. Additive decomposition of frailty into genetic and environmental components is used to estimate heritability in frailty. The estimate of the standard deviation of frailty from the pooled data is about 1.5. The hypothesis that variance in frailty and correlations of frailty for twins are similar in the data from all three countries is accepted. The estimate of narrow-sense heritability in frailty is about 0.5. The age trajectories of individual hazards are evaluated for all three populations of twins and both sexes. The results of our analysis confirm the presence of genetic influences on individual frailty and longevity. They also suggest that the mechanism of these genetic influences may be similar for the three Scandinavian countries. Furthermore, results indicate that the increase in individual hazard with age is more rapid than predicted by traditional demographic life tables.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Twin research : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies

DOI

ISSN

1369-0523

Publication Date

December 1998

Volume

1

Issue

4

Start / End Page

196 / 205

Related Subject Headings

  • Twins
  • Sweden
  • Survival Analysis
  • Sex Factors
  • Molecular Epidemiology
  • Models, Genetic
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Longevity
  • Likelihood Functions
 

Citation

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Iachine, I. A., Holm, N. V., Harris, J. R., Begun, A. Z., Iachina, M. K., Laitinen, M., … Yashin, A. I. (1998). How heritable is individual susceptibility to death? The results of an analysis of survival data on Danish, Swedish and Finnish twins. Twin Research : The Official Journal of the International Society for Twin Studies, 1(4), 196–205. https://doi.org/10.1375/136905298320566168
Iachine, I. A., N. V. Holm, J. R. Harris, A. Z. Begun, M. K. Iachina, M. Laitinen, J. Kaprio, and A. I. Yashin. “How heritable is individual susceptibility to death? The results of an analysis of survival data on Danish, Swedish and Finnish twins.Twin Research : The Official Journal of the International Society for Twin Studies 1, no. 4 (December 1998): 196–205. https://doi.org/10.1375/136905298320566168.
Iachine IA, Holm NV, Harris JR, Begun AZ, Iachina MK, Laitinen M, et al. How heritable is individual susceptibility to death? The results of an analysis of survival data on Danish, Swedish and Finnish twins. Twin research : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies. 1998 Dec;1(4):196–205.
Iachine, I. A., et al. “How heritable is individual susceptibility to death? The results of an analysis of survival data on Danish, Swedish and Finnish twins.Twin Research : The Official Journal of the International Society for Twin Studies, vol. 1, no. 4, Dec. 1998, pp. 196–205. Epmc, doi:10.1375/136905298320566168.
Iachine IA, Holm NV, Harris JR, Begun AZ, Iachina MK, Laitinen M, Kaprio J, Yashin AI. How heritable is individual susceptibility to death? The results of an analysis of survival data on Danish, Swedish and Finnish twins. Twin research : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies. 1998 Dec;1(4):196–205.

Published In

Twin research : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies

DOI

ISSN

1369-0523

Publication Date

December 1998

Volume

1

Issue

4

Start / End Page

196 / 205

Related Subject Headings

  • Twins
  • Sweden
  • Survival Analysis
  • Sex Factors
  • Molecular Epidemiology
  • Models, Genetic
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Longevity
  • Likelihood Functions