title: Nausea and Vomiting During Pregnancy is Highly Heritable.
abstract: Nausea and vomiting during pregnancy (NVP) affects about 70 % of all expectant mothers and commonly impacts their physical health and psychosocial functioning. The aim of this study was to estimate the heritability of the presence, duration and severity of NVP. The sample consisted of 1723 women (M age = 41.78, SD = 11.67) including twins in both complete and incomplete pairs and their sisters from two cohorts participating in the NVP Genetics Consortium. The sample comprised 159 monozygotic and 140 dizygotic complete twin pairs, and 69 twin-sister pairs. We applied an extended twin design using OpenMx and Mx for secondary analysis. Individual differences in NVP were best explained by additive genetic and unique environmental effects. Heritability estimates were 73 % (95 % CIs = 57-84 %) for presence, 51 % (95 % CIs = 36-63 %) for duration and 53 % (95 % CIs = 38-65 %) for severity of NVP. The genetic correlation between duration and severity was almost perfect. Our results show that genes play an important role in different aspects of NVP and justify the importance of searching for genetic variants.
authors.affiliation: Quantitative Genetics Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia. lucia.colodroconde@qimrberghofer.edu.au.|Department of Human Anatomy and Psychobiology, University of Murcia and IMIB Arrixaca, Murcia, Spain. lucia.colodroconde@qimrberghofer.edu.au.
authors.forename: Lucía
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9004-364X
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Colodro-Conde
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland.|Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jern
authors.affiliation: Quantitative Genetics Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia.|Department of Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland.|Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: Ada
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Murcia and IMIB Arrixaca, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Romera
authors.affiliation: Quantitative Genetics Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Penelope A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Lind
authors.affiliation: Quantitative Genetics Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Jodie N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Painter
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy and Psychobiology, University of Murcia and IMIB Arrixaca, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Ordoñana
authors.affiliation: Quantitative Genetics Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Sarah E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Medland
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D040582:Inheritance Patterns / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009325:Nausea / Q000235:genetics*; D010641:Phenotype; D011247:Pregnancy; D013030:Spain; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic / Q000235:genetics; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic / Q000235:genetics; D014839:Vomiting / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: Heritability; Morning sickness; NVP Genetics Consortium; Nausea and vomiting during pregnancy; Twin study; Women’s health