Associations of body size and morphology with cardiometabolic health in children: the contribution of genetic factors.

Objective: We analyzed how anthropometric measures predict cardiometabolic health and how genetic and environmental factors contribute to these associations.

Methods: Data on 8 indicators of cardiometabolic health, 21 anthropometric measures, and 11 anthropometric indices were available for 216 twin pairs of individuals age 3 to 18 years living in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, Portugal (51% girls). Genetic twin modeling was used to estimate genetic and environmental correlations between the cardiometabolic and anthropometric indicators.

Continuous Support from the Same Public Health Nurse and Parental Perception and Use of Health Care Services: A Retrospective Observational Study.

Objective: Continuity is considered essential for high-quality maternal and child health care services, but studies to show this effect on parental well-being are still rare. We studied whether receiving support from the same public health nurse has a beneficial effect on parental perceptions of health care professionals and the use of childcare support services.

Methods: Maternal and child health care services were provided by different nurses in a Japanese municipality until March 2019.

Genetic Regulation of Physical Fitness in Children: A Twin Study of 15 Tests from Eurofit and Fitnessgram Test Batteries.

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the shared genetic background of physical fitness tests in children.

Methods: Physical fitness was assessed in 198 Portuguese twin pairs (6-18 yr old, 40% monozygotic) through 15 tests from the Eurofit and Fitnessgram test batteries. Genetic twin modeling was used to estimate the heritability of each test and the genetic correlations between them.

Longitudinal leisure-time physical activity profiles throughout adulthood and related characteristics: a 36-year follow-up study of the older Finnish Twin Cohort.

Background: Personalized interventions aiming to increase physical activity in individuals are effective. However, from a public health perspective, it would be important to stimulate physical activity in larger groups of people who share the vulnerability to be physically inactive throughout adulthood. To find these high-risk groups, we identified 36-year leisure-time physical activity profiles from young adulthood to late midlife in females and males.

Socio-economic differences in body mass index: the contribution of genetic factors.

Background: Higher mean body mass index (BMI) among lower socioeconomic position (SEP) groups is well established in Western societies, but the influence of genetic factors on these differences is not well characterized.

Methods: We analyzed these associations using Finnish health surveys conducted between 1992 and 2017 (N = 33 523; 53% women) with information on measured weight and height, polygenic risk scores of BMI (PGS-BMI) and linked data from administrative registers to measure educational attainment, occupation-based social class and personal income.

Results: In linear regressions, largest adjusted BMI differences were found between basic and tertiary educated men (1.

Accelerometer-measured physical activity and sedentary behavior in nonagenarians: Associations with self-reported physical activity, anthropometric, sociodemographic, health and cognitive characteristics.

Background: Research on device-based physical activity in the oldest-old adults is scarce. We examined accelerometer-measured physical activity and sedentary behavior in nonagenarians. We also investigated how the accelerometer characteristics associate with nonagenarians' self-reported physical activity, anthropometric, sociodemographic, health and cognitive characteristics.

Polygenic risk of obesity and BMI trajectories over 36 years: A longitudinal study of adult Finnish twins.

Objective: This study investigated 36-year BMI trajectories in twins whose BMI in young adulthood was below, within, or above their genetically predicted BMI, with a focus on twin pairs with large intrapair BMI differences (within-pair ΔBMI ≥ 3 kg/m ).

Methods: Together, 3227 like-sexed twin pairs (34% monozygotic) were examined at age ~30 years in 1975 and followed up in 1981, 1990, and 2011. An individual's observed BMI in 1975 was considered within (±2.

Birth size, school performance and family social position: a study of 650,000 children.

Background: Low birth weight (BW) is associated with lower cognitive functioning, but less is known of these associations across the full range of the BW distribution and its components. We analyzed how BW, birth length (BL) and birth ponderal index (BPI, kg/m) are associated with school performance and how childhood family social position modifies these associations.

Methods: Medical birth records of all Finnish children born in 1987-1997 were linked to school performance records at 16 years of age (N = 642,425).

Genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in sustainable working life-A Swedish twin cohort study.

Although genetics is known to have a role in sickness absences (SA), disability pensions (DP) and in their mutual associations, the empirical knowledge is scarce on not having these interruptions, i.e., sustainable working life.

The mechanism of assortative mating for educational attainment: a study of Finnish and Dutch twins and their spouses.

Assortative mating refers describes a phenomenon in which individuals with similar phenotypic traits are more likely to mate and reproduce with each other; i.e. assortative mating occurs when individuals choose partners based on their similarity or dissimilarity in certain traits.

Educational attainment, health outcomes and mortality: a within-sibship Mendelian randomization study.

Background: Previous Mendelian randomization (MR) studies using population samples (population MR) have provided evidence for beneficial effects of educational attainment on health outcomes in adulthood. However, estimates from these studies may have been susceptible to bias from population stratification, assortative mating and indirect genetic effects due to unadjusted parental genotypes. MR using genetic association estimates derived from within-sibship models (within-sibship MR) can avoid these potential biases because genetic differences between siblings are due to random segregation at meiosis.

Family-Related Life Events as Predictors of Labor Market Marginalization Trajectories: A Cohort Study of Swedish Twins.

Objectives: The aims of the study are to investigate trajectories of labor market marginalization (LMM) and to examine the associations between family-related life events and LMM trajectories while accounting for familial factors.

Methods: This is a prospective cohort study of 37,867 Swedish twins. Data were analyzed by group-based trajectory modeling.

Height, social position and coronary heart disease incidence: the contribution of genetic and environmental factors.

Background: The associations between height, socioeconomic position (SEP) and coronary heart disease (CHD) incidence are well established, but the contribution of genetic factors to these associations is still poorly understood. We used a polygenic score (PGS) for height to shed light on these associations.

Methods: Finnish population-based health surveys in 1992-2011 (response rates 65-93%) were linked to population registers providing information on SEP and CHD incidence up to 2019.

Genetic and Environmental Factors Underlying Parallel Changes in Body Mass Index and Alcohol Consumption: A 36-Year Longitudinal Study of Adult Twins.

Introduction: While the genetic and environmental underpinnings of body weight and alcohol use are fairly well-known, determinants of simultaneous changes in these traits are still poorly known. We sought to quantify the environmental and genetic components underlying parallel changes in weight and alcohol consumption and to investigate potential covariation between them.

Methods: The analysis comprised 4,461 adult participants (58% women) from the Finnish Twin Cohort with four measures of alcohol consumption and body mass index (BMI) over a 36-year follow-up.

Genetic regulation of body size and morphology in children: a twin study of 22 anthropometric traits.

Background: Anthropometric measures show high heritability, and genetic correlations have been found between obesity-related traits. However, we lack a comprehensive analysis of the genetic background of human body morphology using detailed anthropometric measures.

Methods: Height, weight, 7 skinfold thicknesses, 7 body circumferences and 4 body diameters (skeletal breaths) were measured in 214 pairs of twin children aged 3-18 years (87 monozygotic pairs) in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, Portugal.

Sustainable Working Life Patterns in a Swedish Twin Cohort: Age-Related Sequences of Sickness Absence, Disability Pension, Unemployment, and Premature Death during Working Life.

We aimed to investigate sustainable working life via age-related sequences of sickness absence (SA), disability pension (DP), unemployment (UE), premature death, and the influence of individual characteristics, accounting for familial confounding. The sample included monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) same-sexed twin pairs with register data ( = 47,450) that were followed for 10 years in four age cohorts: 26-35 ( = 9892), 36-45 ( = 10,620), 46-55 ( = 12,964) and 56-65 ( = 13,974). A sequence analysis was done in a 7-element state space: 1.

Marital status and genetic liability independently predict coronary heart disease incidence.

Aims: Married individuals have a lower coronary heart disease (CHD) risk than non-married, but the mechanisms behind this are not fully understood. We analyzed whether genetic liability to CHD may affect these associations.

Methods: Marital status, a polygenic score of CHD (PGS-CHD), and other risk factors for CHD were measured from 35,444 participants (53% female) in Finnish population-based surveys conducted between 1992 and 2012.

Changing genetic architecture of body mass index from infancy to early adulthood: an individual based pooled analysis of 25 twin cohorts.

Background: Body mass index (BMI) shows strong continuity over childhood and adolescence and high childhood BMI is the strongest predictor of adult obesity. Genetic factors strongly contribute to this continuity, but it is still poorly known how their contribution changes over childhood and adolescence. Thus, we used the genetic twin design to estimate the genetic correlations of BMI from infancy to adulthood and compared them to the genetic correlations of height.

Smoking remains associated with education after controlling for social background and genetic factors in a study of 18 twin cohorts.

We tested the causality between education and smoking using the natural experiment of discordant twin pairs allowing to optimally control for background genetic and childhood social factors. Data from 18 cohorts including 10,527 monozygotic (MZ) and same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs discordant for education and smoking were analyzed by linear fixed effects regression models. Within twin pairs, education levels were lower among the currently smoking than among the never smoking co-twins and this education difference was larger within DZ than MZ pairs.

Alcohol consumption at age 18-25 and number of children at a 33-year follow-up: Individual and within-pair analyses of Finnish twins.

Background: Do drinking patterns in late adolescence/early adulthood predict lifetime childlessness and number of children? Research on this question has been only tangentially relevant and the results inconsistent. The designs used to date have been compromised by genetic and environmental confounds that are poorly controlled; covariate effects of smoking and education that are often ignored; males being understudied; population-based sampling rare, and long-term prospective studies with genetically informative designs yet to be reported.

Method: In a 33-year follow-up, we linked the drinking patterns of >3500 Finnish twin pairs, assessed at ages 18-25, to registry data on their eventual number of children.

Within-sibship genome-wide association analyses decrease bias in estimates of direct genetic effects.

Estimates from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of unrelated individuals capture effects of inherited variation (direct effects), demography (population stratification, assortative mating) and relatives (indirect genetic effects). Family-based GWAS designs can control for demographic and indirect genetic effects, but large-scale family datasets have been lacking. We combined data from 178,086 siblings from 19 cohorts to generate population (between-family) and within-sibship (within-family) GWAS estimates for 25 phenotypes.

The Association Between Puberty Timing and Body Mass Index in a Longitudinal Setting: The Contribution of Genetic Factors.

We analyzed the contribution of genetic factors on the association between puberty timing and body mass index (BMI) using longitudinal data and two approaches: (i) genetic twin design and (ii) polygenic scores (PGS) of obesity indices. Our data were derived from Finnish cohorts: 9080 twins had information on puberty timing and BMI and 2468 twins also had genetic data. Early puberty timing was moderately associated with higher BMI in childhood in both boys and girls; in adulthood these correlations were weaker and largely disappeared after adjusting for childhood BMI.