title: Genetic and environmental influences on height from infancy to early adulthood: An individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts.
abstract: Height variation is known to be determined by both genetic and environmental factors, but a systematic description of how their influences differ by sex, age and global regions is lacking. We conducted an individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts from 20 countries, including 180,520 paired measurements at ages 1-19 years. The proportion of height variation explained by shared environmental factors was greatest in early childhood, but these effects remained present until early adulthood. Accordingly, the relative genetic contribution increased with age and was greatest in adolescence (up to 0.83 in boys and 0.76 in girls). Comparing geographic-cultural regions (Europe, North-America and Australia, and East-Asia), genetic variance was greatest in North-America and Australia and lowest in East-Asia, but the relative proportion of genetic variation was roughly similar across these regions. Our findings provide further insights into height variation during childhood and adolescence in populations representing different ethnicities and exposed to different environments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology and Animal Physiology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Leioa, Spain.
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authors.lastname: Jelenkovic
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Education, Mokpo National University, Jeonnam, South Korea.
authors.forename: Yoon-Mi
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authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Nancy L
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authors.affiliation: Department of Health Science, Ishikawa Prefectural Nursing University, Kahoku, Ishikawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Syuichi
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authors.affiliation: Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
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authors.affiliation: Istituto Superiore di Sanità - National Center for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, Rome, Italy.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
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authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.|Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
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authors.affiliation: Bandim Health Project, INDEPTH Network, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau.|Research Center for Vitamins and Vaccines, Statens Serum Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark.|Department of Endocrinology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark.
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authors.initials: GE
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authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
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authors.initials: P
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authors.initials: D
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authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
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authors.initials: KP
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authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
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authors.initials: EM
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authors.affiliation: Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College, London, UK.
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authors.initials: T
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authors.affiliation: Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College, London, UK.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College, London, UK.
authors.forename: Genevieve
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authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Baker
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authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
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authors.affiliation: Washington State Twin Registry, Washington State University - Health Sciences Spokane, Spokane, WA, USA.
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authors.affiliation: Washington State Twin Registry, Washington State University, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Dedra
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authors.initials: A
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authors.initials: KO
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authors.affiliation: The Danish Twin Registry, Department of Public Health, Epidemiology, Biostatistics &Biodemography, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.|Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology and Department of Clinical Genetics, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Kaare
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sevgi Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Öncel
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Human and Molecular Genetics, Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA.
authors.forename: Fazil
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Aliev
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Finn
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Jack H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Goldberg
authors.affiliation: Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Basic Metabolic Research (Section on Metabolic Genetics) and Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.|Institute of Preventive Medicine, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospitals, The Capital Region, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Thorkild I A
authors.initials: TI
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Dorret I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Boomsma
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.|Institute for Molecular Medicine FIMM, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Jaakko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaprio
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Karri
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Silventoinen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001315:Australia; D001827:Body Height; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004777:Environment; D005060:Europe; D005202:Asia, Eastern; D005260:Female; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009656:North America; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic / Q000235:genetics*; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic / Q000235:genetics*; D055815:Young Adult