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. 2015 Aug;18(4):348-60.
doi: 10.1017/thg.2015.29. Epub 2015 May 27.

The CODATwins Project: The Cohort Description of Collaborative Project of Development of Anthropometrical Measures in Twins to Study Macro-Environmental Variation in Genetic and Environmental Effects on Anthropometric Traits

Karri Silventoinen  1 Aline Jelenkovic  1 Reijo Sund  1 Chika Honda  2 Sari Aaltonen  1 Yoshie Yokoyama  3 Adam D Tarnoki  4 David L Tarnoki  4 Feng Ning  5 Fuling Ji  5 Zengchang Pang  5 Juan R Ordoñana  6 Juan F Sánchez-Romera  7 Lucia Colodro-Conde  6 S Alexandra Burt  8 Kelly L Klump  8 Sarah E Medland  9 Grant W Montgomery  9 Christian Kandler  10 Tom A McAdams  11 Thalia C Eley  11 Alice M Gregory  12 Kimberly J Saudino  13 Lise Dubois  14 Michel Boivin  15 Claire M A Haworth  16 Robert Plomin  11 Sevgi Y Öncel  17 Fazil Aliev  18 Maria A Stazi  19 Corrado Fagnani  19 Cristina D'Ippolito  19 Jeffrey M Craig  20 Richard Saffery  20 Sisira H Siribaddana  21 Matthew Hotopf  22 Athula Sumathipala  21 Timothy Spector  23 Massimo Mangino  23 Genevieve Lachance  23 Margaret Gatz  24 David A Butler  25 Gombojav Bayasgalan  26 Danshiitsoodol Narandalai  26 Duarte L Freitas  27 José Antonio Maia  28 K Paige Harden  29 Elliot M Tucker-Drob  29 Kaare Christensen  30 Axel Skytthe  30 Kirsten O Kyvik  31 Changhee Hong  32 Youngsook Chong  32 Catherine A Derom  33 Robert F Vlietinck  33 Ruth J F Loos  34 Wendy Cozen  35 Amie E Hwang  35 Thomas M Mack  35 Mingguang He  36 Xiaohu Ding  36 Billy Chang  36 Judy L Silberg  37 Lindon J Eaves  37 Hermine H Maes  38 Tessa L Cutler  39 John L Hopper  39 Kelly Aujard  40 Patrik K E Magnusson  41 Nancy L Pedersen  41 Anna K Dahl Aslan  41 Yun-Mi Song  42 Sarah Yang  43 Kayoung Lee  44 Laura A Baker  24 Catherine Tuvblad  24 Morten Bjerregaard-Andersen  45 Henning Beck-Nielsen  46 Morten Sodemann  47 Kauko Heikkilä  48 Qihua Tan  49 Dongfeng Zhang  50 Gary E Swan  51 Ruth Krasnow  52 Kerry L Jang  53 Ariel Knafo-Noam  54 David Mankuta  55 Lior Abramson  54 Paul Lichtenstein  41 Robert F Krueger  56 Matt McGue  56 Shandell Pahlen  56 Per Tynelius  57 Glen E Duncan  58 Dedra Buchwald  58 Robin P Corley  59 Brooke M Huibregtse  59 Tracy L Nelson  60 Keith E Whitfield  61 Carol E Franz  62 William S Kremen  62 Michael J Lyons  63 Syuichi Ooki  64 Ingunn Brandt  65 Thomas Sevenius Nilsen  65 Fujio Inui  2 Mikio Watanabe  2 Meike Bartels  66 Toos C E M van Beijsterveldt  66 Jane Wardle  67 Clare H Llewellyn  67 Abigail Fisher  67 Esther Rebato  68 Nicholas G Martin  9 Yoshinori Iwatani  2 Kazuo Hayakawa  2 Finn Rasmussen  57 Joohon Sung  43 Jennifer R Harris  65 Gonneke Willemsen  66 Andreas Busjahn  69 Jack H Goldberg  70 Dorret I Boomsma  66 Yoon-Mi Hur  71 Thorkild I A Sørensen  72 Jaakko Kaprio  48
Affiliations

The CODATwins Project: The Cohort Description of Collaborative Project of Development of Anthropometrical Measures in Twins to Study Macro-Environmental Variation in Genetic and Environmental Effects on Anthropometric Traits

Karri Silventoinen et al. Twin Res Hum Genet. 2015 Aug.

Abstract

For over 100 years, the genetics of human anthropometric traits has attracted scientific interest. In particular, height and body mass index (BMI, calculated as kg/m2) have been under intensive genetic research. However, it is still largely unknown whether and how heritability estimates vary between human populations. Opportunities to address this question have increased recently because of the establishment of many new twin cohorts and the increasing accumulation of data in established twin cohorts. We started a new research project to analyze systematically (1) the variation of heritability estimates of height, BMI and their trajectories over the life course between birth cohorts, ethnicities and countries, and (2) to study the effects of birth-related factors, education and smoking on these anthropometric traits and whether these effects vary between twin cohorts. We identified 67 twin projects, including both monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins, using various sources. We asked for individual level data on height and weight including repeated measurements, birth related traits, background variables, education and smoking. By the end of 2014, 48 projects participated. Together, we have 893,458 height and weight measures (52% females) from 434,723 twin individuals, including 201,192 complete twin pairs (40% monozygotic, 40% same-sex dizygotic and 20% opposite-sex dizygotic) representing 22 countries. This project demonstrates that large-scale international twin studies are feasible and can promote the use of existing data for novel research purposes.

Keywords: BMI; height; heritability; international comparisons; twins.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Accumulation of the CODATwins database.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of height and weight measures by sex and age.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Number of complete twin pairs by birth year and zygosity.

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