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The heritability of mortality due to heart diseases: a correlated frailty model applied to Danish twins.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Wienke, A; Holm, NV; Skytthe, A; Yashin, AI
Published in: Twin research : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies
August 2001

Data of the Danish Twin Registry on monozygotic and dizygotic twins are used to analyse genetic and environmental influences on susceptibility to heart diseases for males and females, respectively. The sample includes 7955 like-sexed twin pairs born between 1870 and 1930. Follow-up was from 1 January 1943 to 31 December 1993 which results in truncation (twin pairs were included in the study if both individuals were still alive at the beginning of the follow-up) and censoring (nearly 40% of the study population was still alive at the end of the follow-up). We use the correlated gamma-frailty model for the genetic analysis of frailty to account for this censoring and truncation. During the follow-up 9370 deaths occurred, 3393 deaths were due to heart diseases in general, including 2476 deaths due to coronary heart disease (CHD). Proportions of variance of frailty attributable to genetic and environmental factors were analyzed using the structural equation model approach. Different standard biometric models are fitted to the data to evaluate the magnitude and nature of genetic and environmental factors on mortality. Using the best fitting model heritability of frailty (liability to death) was found to be 0.55 (0.07) and 0.53 (0.11) with respect to heart diseases and CHD, respectively, for males and 0.52 (0.10) and 0.58 (0.14) for females in a parametric analysis. A semi-parametric analysis shows very similar results. These analyses may indicate the existence of a strong genetic influence on individual frailty associated with mortality caused by heart diseases and CHD in both, males and females. The nature of genetic influences on frailty with respect to heart diseases and CHD is probably additive. No evidence for dominance and shared environment was found.

Duke Scholars

Published In

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

DOI

ISSN

1369-0523

Publication Date

August 2001

Volume

4

Issue

4

Start / End Page

266 / 274

Related Subject Headings

  • Twins, Monozygotic
  • Twins, Dizygotic
  • Survival Rate
  • Statistics as Topic
  • Sex Distribution
  • Reference Values
  • Models, Statistical
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Likelihood Functions
 

Citation

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Wienke, A., Holm, N. V., Skytthe, A., & Yashin, A. I. (2001). The heritability of mortality due to heart diseases: a correlated frailty model applied to Danish twins. Twin Research : The Official Journal of the International Society for Twin Studies, 4(4), 266–274. https://doi.org/10.1375/1369052012399
Wienke, A., N. V. Holm, A. Skytthe, and A. I. Yashin. “The heritability of mortality due to heart diseases: a correlated frailty model applied to Danish twins.Twin Research : The Official Journal of the International Society for Twin Studies 4, no. 4 (August 2001): 266–74. https://doi.org/10.1375/1369052012399.
Wienke A, Holm NV, Skytthe A, Yashin AI. The heritability of mortality due to heart diseases: a correlated frailty model applied to Danish twins. Twin research : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies. 2001 Aug;4(4):266–74.
Wienke, A., et al. “The heritability of mortality due to heart diseases: a correlated frailty model applied to Danish twins.Twin Research : The Official Journal of the International Society for Twin Studies, vol. 4, no. 4, Aug. 2001, pp. 266–74. Epmc, doi:10.1375/1369052012399.
Wienke A, Holm NV, Skytthe A, Yashin AI. The heritability of mortality due to heart diseases: a correlated frailty model applied to Danish twins. Twin research : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies. 2001 Aug;4(4):266–274.

Published In

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

DOI

ISSN

1369-0523

Publication Date

August 2001

Volume

4

Issue

4

Start / End Page

266 / 274

Related Subject Headings

  • Twins, Monozygotic
  • Twins, Dizygotic
  • Survival Rate
  • Statistics as Topic
  • Sex Distribution
  • Reference Values
  • Models, Statistical
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Likelihood Functions