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High Heritability for a Composite Index of Children’s Activity Level Measures

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Abstract

Despite the high heritability of children’s activity level, which forms part of the core symptom domain of hyperactivity-impulsivity within attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), there has only been a limited success with identifying candidate genes involved in its etiology. This may reflect a lack of understanding about the different measures used to define activity level across studies. We aimed to study the genetic and environmental etiology across three measures of activity level: parent and teacher ratings of hyperactivity-impulsivity and actigraph measurements, within a population-based sample of 463 7–9 year old twin pairs. We further examined ways in which the three measures could be combined for future molecular studies. Phenotypic correlations across measures were modest, but a common underlying phenotypic factor was highly heritable (92%); as was a simple aggregation of all three measurements (77%). This suggests that distilling what is common to all three measures may be a good method for generating a quantitative trait suitable for molecular studies of activity level in children. The high heritabilities found are encouraging in this respect.

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Acknowledgements

The Study of Activity and Impulsivity Levels in children (SAIL) is funded by a project grant from the Wellcome Trust (GR070345MF). Dr. Saudino is supported by grant MH062375 from the National Institute of Mental Health. Alexis Wood is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council. Thank you to all who make this research possible: the TEDS-SAIL families, who give their time and support so unstintingly; Eda Salih, Hannah Rogers, Rebecca Gibbs, Greer Swinard, Kate Lievesley, Kayley O’Flynn, Suzi Marquis and Rebecca Whittemore, Vlad Mereuţa, Desmond Campbell and everyone on the TEDS team.

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  1. Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, P.O. Box 80, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK

    Alexis C. Wood, Frühling Rijsdijk, Philip Asherson & Jonna Kuntsi

  2. The Psychology Department, Boston University, 64 Cummington St., Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Kimberly J. Saudino

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Correspondence to Alexis C. Wood.

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Wood, A.C., Rijsdijk, F., Saudino, K.J. et al. High Heritability for a Composite Index of Children’s Activity Level Measures. Behav Genet 38, 266–276 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-008-9196-1

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