A Danish population-based twin study on general health in the elderly
- PMID: 10848141
- DOI: 10.1177/089826439901100103
A Danish population-based twin study on general health in the elderly
Abstract
Objectives: To study the relative influence of genetic and environmental factors on self-rated health and hospitalization patterns in the elderly.
Methods: A survey among all 3,099 Danish twins ages 75 years and older identified in the Danish Twin Registry. An interview was conducted with 77% of the twins. The number of hospitalizations in the previous 18 years was obtained through register linkage, thereby obtaining health information on 96% of the study population, including all nonresponders.
Results: Structural equation modeling suggested that approximately a quarter of the variation in the liability to self-reported health and the number of hospitalizations could be attributed to genetic factors. The remaining variation was most likely due to nonfamilial environment. Analyses of the hospitalization patterns of proxy responders and nonresponders suggest that the estimates of the genetic influence on health outcomes in the study are conservative.
Discussion: The present study indicates that variation in general health among the elderly is partly explained by genetic factors.
Similar articles
-
Genetic and environmental influences on self-reported reduced hearing in the old and oldest old.J Am Geriatr Soc. 2001 Nov;49(11):1512-7. doi: 10.1046/j.1532-5415.2001.4911245.x. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2001. PMID: 11890591
-
Self-rated health in a longitudinal perspective: a 9-year follow-up twin study.J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2005 Nov;60(6):S331-S340. doi: 10.1093/geronb/60.6.s331. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2005. PMID: 16260716
-
Genetic and environmental influences on functional abilities in Danish twins aged 75 years and older.J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2000 Aug;55(8):M446-52. doi: 10.1093/gerona/55.8.m446. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2000. PMID: 10952367
-
Genetic and environmental factors in alexithymia: a population-based study of 8,785 Danish twin pairs.Psychother Psychosom. 2007;76(6):369-75. doi: 10.1159/000107565. Psychother Psychosom. 2007. PMID: 17917473
-
Genetics of dietary habits and obesity - a twin study.Dan Med Bull. 2010 Sep;57(9):B4182. Dan Med Bull. 2010. PMID: 20816022
Cited by
-
Does physical activity moderate the relationship between depression symptomatology and low back pain? Cohort and co-twin control analyses nested in the longitudinal study of aging Danish twins (LSADT).Eur Spine J. 2016 Apr;25(4):1226-33. doi: 10.1007/s00586-015-4138-0. Epub 2015 Aug 1. Eur Spine J. 2016. PMID: 26231337
-
Mosaic aging.Med Hypotheses. 2010 Jun;74(6):1048-51. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2009.12.031. Epub 2010 Jan 27. Med Hypotheses. 2010. PMID: 20110150 Free PMC article.
-
Epigenome-wide association study of leukocyte telomere length.Aging (Albany NY). 2019 Aug 26;11(16):5876-5894. doi: 10.18632/aging.102230. Epub 2019 Aug 26. Aging (Albany NY). 2019. PMID: 31461406 Free PMC article.
-
Biobank resources for future patient care: developments, principles and concepts.J Clin Bioinforma. 2011 Sep 16;1(1):24. doi: 10.1186/2043-9113-1-24. J Clin Bioinforma. 2011. PMID: 21923917 Free PMC article.
-
The establishment of the GENEQOL consortium to investigate the genetic disposition of patient-reported quality-of-life outcomes.Twin Res Hum Genet. 2009 Jun;12(3):301-11. doi: 10.1375/twin.12.3.301. Twin Res Hum Genet. 2009. PMID: 19456223 Free PMC article.
Publication types
MeSH terms
Grants and funding
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Medical
