A comparison of the early growth of twins and singletons

Buckler, John; Green, M.

doi:10.1080/03014460410001670120

Cited by 66 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…60 These differences may have their origin in prenatal conditions because compared with singleton pregnancies, twin pregnancies are characterized by earlier gestational age, lower birth weight and rapid catch-up growth, especially during the first year of life. 61 This mean difference in BMI between twins and singletons is, however, not a problem in twin studies because it can be taken into account in genetic modeling.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The genetic and environmental influences on childhood obesity: a systematic review of twin and adoption studies

et al. 2009

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In this systematic review, we aimed to collect together all previous twin and adoption studies on childhood and adolescent obesity up to the age of 18 years. Using several sources, we identified nine twin and five adoption studies; all of these studies had used relative weight as an indicator of obesity. Except the two twin studies from the Korean population, all studies represented Caucasian populations. In a meta-analysis of these twin studies, we found that genetic factors had a strong effect on the variation of body mass index (BMI) at all ages. The common environmental factors showed a substantial effect in mid-childhood, but this effect disappeared at adolescence. Adoption studies supported the role of family environment in childhood obesity as correlations were found between adoptees and adoptive parents; however, correlations were substantially stronger between parents and their biological offspring, further supporting the importance of genetic factors. In the future, more studies implementing genetic and environmental measures into twin models are needed as they allow estimation of the proportion of total genetic variation explained by candidate genes and analyses of gene-environment interactions. More studies of genetic architecture in non-Caucasian populations, of gene-environment interactions, and of body composition and body fat distribution are needed. IntroductionChildhood obesity is one of the major public health problems in the modern world. In the period [2003][2004][2005][2006], 32% of the US children were classified as obese or overweight, 1 and increasing trends in childhood obesity are seen all over the world. 2 These results are especially alarming as overweight children show a high risk of becoming obese adults. 3,4 Childhood is an important period of life for health interventions as health-related behaviors are just in formation, and it seems possible to intervene for preventing the development of obesity. 5 Thus, it is crucial to further understand the background mechanisms of childhood obesity to find even more effective measures to prevent it before it begins to produce more or less irreversible health damages.Both genetic and environmental factors will probably contribute to childhood obesity. 6 Family studies have shown that obesity runs in families, although more detailed twin, adoption and family studies have shown that genetic differences between individuals explain a major proportion of the within-population variation in body mass index (BMI, kg m À2 ) in adulthood. [7][8][9] It is probable that genetic factors have an important role in childhood obesity also, but their role may be different or they may result from other genes than those that operate in adulthood. 10 The environmental factors shared by family members, such as co-twins in twin studies, have shown only a slight effect on the variation of adult BMI. 7,8 However, they may have a more important role in childhood, where parents and their offspring live together and where siblings obviously have a much greater opportu...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The genetic and environmental influences on childhood obesity: a systematic review of twin and adoption studies

et al. 2009

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“…In accordance with previous literature birth length was less reduced than birth weight when compared with singletons. 11,12 It is known from these studies that the fall off in birth length starts later in pregnancy and is of smaller magnitude than the fall off in birth weight. This may explain our findings that the deficit in height disappeared among 4-year-old twins, but they were still somewhat underweight.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…10 Several studies have shown that the differences in body size between twins and singletons at birth disappeared during childhood, but in a few studies differences remained until adulthood. [11][12][13][14][15] The Louisville Twin Study concluded that the effects of prenatal growth suppression on weight and height appeared to be fully dissipated by age 8, 11 and a Finnish study among 17-year-old twins reported that twins were as tall as singletons, but that boy twins were still leaner. 13 We found in a previous study that at the age of 5 years, female twins were as tall as singleton children, whereas male twins were still somewhat shorter than children in the general population.…”

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confidence: 99%

Body Size of Twins Compared with Siblings and the General Population: From Birth to Late Adolescence

Burk

Bartels

Boomsma

et al. 2010

The Journal of Pediatrics

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“…20 It is well known that twin pregnancies are different from singleton pregnancies and are characterized by earlier gestational age, lower birth weight and rapid catch-up growth, especially during the first year of life. 21 Birth weight discordance in both MZ and DZ twins is fairly common 22 and may be due to placental implantation and function resulting in nutritional imbalances between co-twins in the uterus. Because of the intra-uterine environmental constrains, MZ co-twins are less similar at birth than they would be based on their genetic potential.…”

Section: Genetics Of Relative Weight From Birth To Age 18 K Silventoimentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic and environmental factors in relative weight from birth to age 18: The Swedish Young Male Twins Study

Silventoinen

Pietiläinen

Tynelius³

et al. 2007

Int J Obes

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Objectives: To investigate the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to the development of relative weight during the growth period. Design: Longitudinal twin study. Subjects: Two-hundred and thirty-one monozygotic and 144 dizygotic complete male twin pairs born between 1973 and 1979 were measured annually from birth to 18 years of age. Results: Body mass index (BMI, kg/m 2 ) at age 18 correlated with BMI at age 1 (r ¼ 0.32, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.21-0.42), and this correlation increased steadily up to age 17 (r ¼ 0.91, 95% CI 0.89-0.93). Major part (81-95%) of these trait correlations was attributable to correlate additive genetic factors, but also unique environmental correlations were present during the whole-growth period. The correlation between ponderal index (kg/m 3 ) at birth and BMI at age 18 was small (r ¼ 0.09, 95% CI 0.02-0.15) and totally because of correlated unique environmental factors. Conclusions: Our results suggest persistent genetic regulation of BMI from age 1 to 18. However, environmental factors, not shared by siblings, also affected the correlations of BMI. A small specific environmental correlation was found between ponderal index at birth and BMI at age 18, which may reflect the effect of neonatal environmental factors on adult BMI. A challenge to the future research is to identify chromosome regions and specific genes regulating the development of BMI as well as environmental factors affecting BMI through the growth period independently or interacting with genetic factors.

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A comparison of the early growth of twins and singletons

Abstract: The early growth of normal twins differs markedly from that of singletons. It is important to recognize that singleton reference values do not correctly reflect the growth of twins.

Cited by 66 publications

References 28 publications

The genetic and environmental influences on childhood obesity: a systematic review of twin and adoption studies

The genetic and environmental influences on childhood obesity: a systematic review of twin and adoption studies

Body Size of Twins Compared with Siblings and the General Population: From Birth to Late Adolescence

Genetic and environmental factors in relative weight from birth to age 18: The Swedish Young Male Twins Study

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