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Zygosity Differences in Height and Body Mass Index of Twins From Infancy to Old Age: A Study of the CODATwins Project
Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Finland ; Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology and Animal Physiology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Leioa, Spain.
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden ; Institute of Gerontology, School of Health Sciences, Jönköping University, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6305-8993
Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Finland ; Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Japan.
Number of Authors: 1302015 (English)In: Twin Research and Human Genetics, ISSN 1832-4274, E-ISSN 1839-2628, Vol. 18, no 5, p. 557-570Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

A trend toward greater body size in dizygotic (DZ) than in monozygotic (MZ) twins has been suggested by some but not all studies, and this difference may also vary by age. We analyzed zygosity differences in mean values and variances of height and body mass index (BMI) among male and female twins from infancy to old age. Data were derived from an international database of 54 twin cohorts participating in the COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins), and included 842,951 height and BMI measurements from twins aged 1 to 102 years. The results showed that DZ twins were consistently taller than MZ twins, with differences of up to 2.0 cm in childhood and adolescence and up to 0.9 cm in adulthood. Similarly, a greater mean BMI of up to 0.3 kg/m2 in childhood and adolescence and up to 0.2 kg/m2 in adulthood was observed in DZ twins, although the pattern was less consistent. DZ twins presented up to 1.7% greater height and 1.9% greater BMI than MZ twins; these percentage differences were largest in middle and late childhood and decreased with age in both sexes. The variance of height was similar in MZ and DZ twins at most ages. In contrast, the variance of BMI was significantly higher in DZ than in MZ twins, particularly in childhood. In conclusion, DZ twins were generally taller and had greater BMI than MZ twins, but the differences decreased with age in both sexes.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Cambridge University Press, 2015. Vol. 18, no 5, p. 557-570
Keywords [en]
twins, height, body mass index, BMI, zygosity differences
National Category
Genetics and Genomics Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:his:diva-21881DOI: 10.1017/thg.2015.57ISI: 000361660800008PubMedID: 26337138Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84941873893OAI: oai:DiVA.org:his-21881DiVA, id: diva2:1700000
Available from: 2022-09-29 Created: 2022-09-29 Last updated: 2025-09-29Bibliographically approved

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Dahl Aslan, Anna K.

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