FinnTwin12 Cohort: An Updated Review

Abstract

This review offers an update on research conducted with FinnTwin12 (FT12), the youngest of the three Finnish Twin Cohorts. FT12 was designed as a two-stage study. In the first stage, we conducted multiwave questionnaire research enrolling all eligible twins born in Finland during 1983-1987 along with their biological parents. In stage 2, we intensively studied a subset of these twins with in-school assessments at age 12 and semistructured poly-diagnostic interviews at age 14. At baseline, parents of intensively studied twins were administered the adult version of the interview. Laboratory studies with repeat interviews, neuropsychological tests, and collection of DNA were made of intensively studied twins during follow-up in early adulthood. The basic aim of the FT12 study design was to obtain information on individual, familial and school/neighborhood risks for substance use/abuse prior to the onset of regular tobacco and alcohol use and then track trajectories of use and abuse and their consequences into adulthood. But the longitudinal assessments were not narrowly limited to this basic aim, and with multiwave, multirater assessments from ages 11 to 12, the study has created a richly informative data set for analyses of gene-environment interactions of both candidate genes and genomewide measures with measured risk-relevant environments. Because 25 years have elapsed since the start of the study, we are planning a fifth-wave follow-up assessment.

Keywords: Longitudinal twin-family study; alcohol; diet; diverse phenotypes; epigenetics; genetics; mental health; metabolomics; physical activity; smoking; twins; two-stage design.

Fig. 1.

Multilevel developmental contextual framework. Cross paths denote interrelationships among domains. Dashed lines denote gene–environment interaction effects.

Fig. 2.

Overlap in responses to wave 1 to 4 studies for the FinnTwin12 twins. The young adult study (YAQ) consists of the intensive sample study (interview, in-person assessments and questionnaires) and the remaining epidemiology sample (questionnaire only).