Heritability variations of morphometric traits in West Bengal (India) children aged 4-19 years: a mixed-longitudinal growth study.
BACKGROUND
Longitudinal and semi-longitudinal growth studies on siblings reflecting heritability changes during growth are very scarce. Moreover, studies of variables other than height, weight and BMI are virtually non-existent.


OBJECTIVE
The study compared changes in the heritability of six body lengths, four body breadths, and three indices between ages 4 and 19 years on the basis of a mixed-longitudinal sample of siblings, and examined whether heritability estimates change during the growth period. The data consisted of 238 brothers and 214 sisters from 134 middle-class nuclear families living in Kolkata (India). The analysis of sibling correlation was performed by maximum likelihood. The age-related patterns of heritabilities of the various traits were described by a cubic spline.


RESULTS
The heritability was very high and significant in most traits, and at all considered ages. Mean heritability in the 10 morphometric traits was 69.3%, which was higher than the heritability values for the three indices.


CONCLUSIONS
These results confirmed the existence of age-related trends in heritability of the considered morphometric traits. The sharp decline of the heritabilities at adolescence in most of the morphometric traits, and the acromio-iliac index in particular, may be due to the large inter-individual variation in the age at which the adolescent growth spurt is reached in both sexes.
Salces
I
I
Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology and Animal Physiology, University of Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain. itziar.salces@ehu.es
Rebato
E
E
Susanne
C
C
Hauspie
R C
RC
Saha
R
R
Dasgupta
P
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D049628:Body Size / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006128:Growth / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D040941:Heredity; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D035781:Siblings