Twin-singleton differences

Christensen, Kaare

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-821514-2.00018-0

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…To generalize findings from twin studies to the general population, twins should be representative. Twins and singletons are very similar in most respects 82,83 , even though twins are born earlier on average and grow up with a sibling of the same age. No differences were found for biomarkers and diseases 84 , cognitive functions 85 , (health) behaviours 86 , personality 87 , and psychopathology 88 .…”

Section: Generalizability Of Twin Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maximising the Value of Twin Studies in Health and Behaviour

Hagenbeek¹,

Hirzinger²,

Breunig³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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This contribution considers developments in the field of ‘twin studies’ in times of rapid changes in society, and technological and methodological advances. The classical twin design is of value to emerging and re-emerging phenotypes, including those from evolving omics technologies and offers advances for modeling causality, intergenerational transmission, gene-environment correlation and interaction. We summarize what we have learned about twinning and look at whether twins and twin studies are representative of the general population and cover global diversity. We provide an updated overview of twin concordance and discordance for major diseases and disorders, which convey a crucial message: the genetic code is not as deterministic as often believed. This has important implications for genetic risk prediction tools utilized by researchers and clinicians, as predictions can only go as far as the monozygotic twin concordance rates.

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