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Genetic and environmental influences on adult human height across birth cohorts from 1886 to 1994.

ABSTRACT: Human height variation is determined by genetic and environmental factors, but it remains unclear whether their influences differ across birth-year cohorts. We conducted an individual-based pooled analysis of 40 twin cohorts including 143,390 complete twin pairs born 1886-1994. Although genetic variance showed a generally increasing trend across the birth-year cohorts, heritability estimates (0.69-0.84 in men and 0.53-0.78 in women) did not present any clear pattern of secular changes. Comparing geographic-cultural regions (Europe, North America and Australia, and East Asia), total height variance was greatest in North America and Australia and lowest in East Asia, but no clear pattern in the heritability estimates across the birth-year cohorts emerged. Our findings do not support the hypothesis that heritability of height is lower in populations with low living standards than in affluent populations, nor that heritability of height will increase within a population as living standards improve.

SUBMITTER: Jelenkovic A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5156525 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Genetic and environmental influences on adult human height across birth cohorts from 1886 to 1994.

Jelenkovic Aline A Hur Yoon-Mi YM Sund Reijo R Yokoyama Yoshie Y Siribaddana Sisira H SH Hotopf Matthew M Sumathipala Athula A Rijsdijk Fruhling F Tan Qihua Q Zhang Dongfeng D Pang Zengchang Z Aaltonen Sari S Heikkilä Kauko K Öncel Sevgi Y SY Aliev Fazil F Rebato Esther E Tarnoki Adam D AD Tarnoki David L DL Christensen Kaare K Skytthe Axel A Kyvik Kirsten O KO Silberg Judy L JL Eaves Lindon J LJ Maes Hermine H HH Cutler Tessa L TL Hopper John L JL Ordoñana Juan R JR Sánchez-Romera Juan F JF Colodro-Conde Lucia L Cozen Wendy W Hwang Amie E AE Mack Thomas M TM Sung Joohon J Song Yun-Mi YM Yang Sarah S Lee Kayoung K Franz Carol E CE Kremen William S WS Lyons Michael J MJ Busjahn Andreas A Nelson Tracy L TL Whitfield Keith E KE Kandler Christian C Jang Kerry L KL Gatz Margaret M Butler David A DA Stazi Maria A MA Fagnani Corrado C D'Ippolito Cristina C Duncan Glen E GE Buchwald Dedra D Derom Catherine A CA Vlietinck Robert F RF Loos Ruth Jf RJ Martin Nicholas G NG Medland Sarah E SE Montgomery Grant W GW Jeong Hoe-Uk HU Swan Gary E GE Krasnow Ruth R Magnusson Patrik Ke PK Pedersen Nancy L NL Dahl-Aslan Anna K AK McAdams Tom A TA Eley Thalia C TC Gregory Alice M AM Tynelius Per P Baker Laura A LA Tuvblad Catherine C Bayasgalan Gombojav G Narandalai Danshiitsoodol D Lichtenstein Paul P Spector Timothy D TD Mangino Massimo M Lachance Genevieve G Bartels Meike M van Beijsterveldt Toos Cem TC Willemsen Gonneke G Burt S Alexandra SA Klump Kelly L KL Harris Jennifer R JR Brandt Ingunn I Nilsen Thomas Sevenius TS Krueger Robert F RF McGue Matt M Pahlen Shandell S Corley Robin P RP Hjelmborg Jacob V B JV Goldberg Jack H JH Iwatani Yoshinori Y Watanabe Mikio M Honda Chika C Inui Fujio F Rasmussen Finn F Huibregtse Brooke M BM Boomsma Dorret I DI Sørensen Thorkild I A TI Kaprio Jaakko J Silventoinen Karri K

eLife 20161214

Human height variation is determined by genetic and environmental factors, but it remains unclear whether their influences differ across birth-year cohorts. We conducted an individual-based pooled analysis of 40 twin cohorts including 143,390 complete twin pairs born 1886-1994. Although genetic variance showed a generally increasing trend across the birth-year cohorts, heritability estimates (0.69-0.84 in men and 0.53-0.78 in women) did not present any clear pattern of secular changes. Comparing ...[more]

PMID: 27964777

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Project description:Environmental exposures during pregnancy and early life may have adverse health effects. Single birth cohort studies often lack statistical power to tease out such effects reliably. To improve the use of existing data and to facilitate collaboration among these studies, an inventory of the environmental exposure and health data in these studies was made as part of the ENRIECO (Environmental Health Risks in European Birth Cohorts) project. The focus with regard to exposure was on outdoor air pollution, water contamination, allergens and biological organisms, metals, pesticides, smoking and second hand tobacco smoke (SHS), persistent organic pollutants (POPs), noise, radiation, and occupational exposures. The review lists methods and data on environmental exposures in 37 European birth cohort studies. Most data is currently available for smoking and SHS (N=37 cohorts), occupational exposures (N=33), outdoor air pollution, and allergens and microbial agents (N=27). Exposure modeling is increasingly used for long-term air pollution exposure assessment; biomonitoring is used for assessment of exposure to metals, POPs and other chemicals; and environmental monitoring for house dust mite exposure assessment. Collaborative analyses with data from several birth cohorts have already been performed successfully for outdoor air pollution, water contamination, allergens, biological contaminants, molds, POPs and SHS. Key success factors for collaborative analyses are common definitions of main exposure and health variables. Our review emphasizes that such common definitions need ideally be arrived at in the study design phase. However, careful comparison of methods used in existing studies also offers excellent opportunities for collaborative analyses. Investigators can use this review to evaluate the potential for future collaborative analyses with respect to data availability and methods used in the different cohorts and to identify potential partners for a specific research question.

Dataset Information

Genetic and environmental influences on adult human height across birth cohorts from 1886 to 1994.

Publications

Genetic and environmental influences on adult human height across birth cohorts from 1886 to 1994.

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