title: Temperance board registration for alcohol abuse in a national sample of Swedish male twins, born 1902 to 1949.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Temperance boards were established in Sweden to register and follow up individuals who were seen in legal or medical settings with problems of alcohol abuse. These records, available in a large epidemiologic twin population, have provided an objective and validated measure of alcohol abuse.
  
  
  METHODS
  We examined Swedish temperance board registrations from 1929 to 1974 (n = 2516 individual twins) in all male-male Swedish twin pairs of known zygosity from the population-based Swedish Twin Registry; these twin pairs were born from 1902 to 1949 (n = 8935 pairs).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The lifetime prevalence and probandwise concordance rates for temperance board registrations were 13.2% and 47.9%, respectively, in monozygotic twins and 14.6% and 32.8%, respectively, in dizygotic twins. Model fitting suggested that genetic and familial-environmental risk factors accounted for 54% (95% confidence interval [CI], 47%-61%) and 14% (95% CI, 8%-19%) of the liability to temperance board registration, respectively; these estimates were stable across birth cohorts. High genetic liability was reflected by large numbers of temperance board registrations and registrations for criminal alcohol use. Elevated familial-environmental liability was indicated by an early age at first registration.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Genetic factors are of major etiologic importance for alcohol abuse in men, while familial environmental factors play a significant but less important role. The etiologic importance of these factors has remained constant in Sweden for men who were born in the first half of the 20th century.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA.
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Kendler
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Prescott
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Neale
authors.forename: N L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Pedersen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004200:Diseases in Twins / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D013695:Temperance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data