Journal
BEHAVIOR GENETICS
Volume 34, Issue 6, Pages 585-592Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10519-004-5586-1
Keywords
coronary heart disease; frailty; heritability; risk factors; twins
Funding
- NIA NIH HHS [7P01 AG08761-09] Funding Source: Medline
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The importance of some recognized risk factors on genetic influences for coronary heart disease (CHD) needs further clarification. The aim of the present study was therefore to study the impact of known risk factors on genetic influences for CHD-death. Both twin (correlated gamma-frailty) and non-twin models (univariate gamma-frailty) were utilized and compared regarding their suitability for genetic analyses. The study population consisted of twins born in Sweden between 1886 and 1925. As expected, our findings indicate that genetic influences are important for CHD-death. Inclusion of risk factors in the twin-model increased heritability estimates, primarily due to a substantial reduction in non-shared environmental variances. The genetic influences for CHD-death are only marginally mediated through the risk factors among males, but more so among females. Although the outcome phenotype used in the present study is not behavioral, the analyses demonstrate the potential of frailty models for quantitative genetic analyses of categorical phenotypes.
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