Genetic and environmental influences on adult human height across birth cohorts from 1886 to 1994

  1. Aline Jelenkovic  Is a corresponding author
  2. Yoon-Mi Hur
  3. Reijo Sund
  4. Yoshie Yokoyama
  5. Sisira H Siribaddana
  6. Matthew Hotopf
  7. Athula Sumathipala
  8. Fruhling Rijsdijk
  9. Qihua Tan
  10. Dongfeng Zhang
  11. Zengchang Pang
  12. Sari Aaltonen
  13. Kauko Heikkilä
  14. Sevgi Y Öncel
  15. Fazil Aliev
  16. Esther Rebato
  17. Adam D Tarnoki
  18. David L Tarnoki
  19. Kaare Christensen
  20. Axel Skytthe
  21. Kirsten O Kyvik
  22. Judy L Silberg
  23. Lindon J Eaves
  24. Hermine H Maes
  25. Tessa L Cutler
  26. John L Hopper
  27. Juan R Ordoñana
  28. Juan F Sánchez-Romera
  29. Lucia Colodro-Conde
  30. Wendy Cozen
  31. Amie E Hwang
  32. Thomas M Mack
  33. Joohon Sung
  34. Yun-Mi Song
  35. Sarah Yang
  36. Kayoung Lee
  37. Carol E Franz
  38. William S Kremen
  39. Michael J Lyons
  40. Andreas Busjahn
  41. Tracy L Nelson
  42. Keith E Whitfield
  43. Christian Kandler
  44. Kerry L Jang
  45. Margaret Gatz
  46. David A Butler
  47. Maria A Stazi
  48. Corrado Fagnani
  49. Cristina D'Ippolito
  50. Glen E Duncan
  51. Dedra Buchwald
  52. Catherine A Derom
  53. Robert F Vlietinck
  54. Ruth JF Loos
  55. Nicholas G Martin
  56. Sarah E Medland
  57. Grant W Montgomery
  58. Hoe-Uk Jeong
  59. Gary E Swan
  60. Ruth Krasnow
  61. Patrik KE Magnusson
  62. Nancy L Pedersen
  63. Anna K Dahl-Aslan
  64. Tom A McAdams
  65. Thalia C Eley
  66. Alice M Gregory
  67. Per Tynelius
  68. Laura A Baker
  69. Catherine Tuvblad
  70. Gombojav Bayasgalan
  71. Danshiitsoodol Narandalai
  72. Paul Lichtenstein
  73. Timothy D Spector
  74. Massimo Mangino
  75. Genevieve Lachance
  76. Meike Bartels
  77. Toos CEM van Beijsterveldt
  78. Gonneke Willemsen
  79. S Alexandra Burt
  80. Kelly L Klump
  81. Jennifer R Harris
  82. Ingunn Brandt
  83. Thomas Sevenius Nilsen
  84. Robert F Krueger
  85. Matt McGue
  86. Shandell Pahlen
  87. Robin P Corley
  88. Jacob v B Hjelmborg
  89. Jack H Goldberg
  90. Yoshinori Iwatani
  91. Mikio Watanabe
  92. Chika Honda
  93. Fujio Inui
  94. Finn Rasmussen
  95. Brooke M Huibregtse
  96. Dorret I Boomsma
  97. Thorkild I A Sørensen
  98. Jaakko Kaprio
  99. Karri Silventoinen
  1. University of Helsinki, Finland
  2. University of the Basque Country, Spain
  3. Mokpo National University, South Korea
  4. Osaka City University, Japan
  5. Institute of Research & Development, Sri Lanka
  6. Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
  7. NIHR Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and, Institute of Psychiatry Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, United Kingdom
  8. Keele University, United Kingdom
  9. King's College London, United Kingdom
  10. Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
  11. Qingdao University Medical College, China
  12. Qingdao Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, China
  13. Kirikkale University, Turkey
  14. Karabuk University, Turkey
  15. Virginia Commonwealth University, United States
  16. Semmelweis University, Hungary
  17. Hungarian Twin Registry, Hungary
  18. University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
  19. Odense University Hospital, Denmark
  20. The University of Melbourne, Australia
  21. Seoul National University, Korea
  22. University of Murcia, Spain
  23. IMIB-Arrixaca, Spain
  24. QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Australia
  25. University of Southern California, United States
  26. USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, United States
  27. Seoul National University, South-Korea
  28. Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, South-Korea
  29. Inje University College of Medicine, Korea
  30. University of California, San Diego, United States
  31. VA San Diego Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health, United States
  32. Boston University, United States
  33. HealthTwiSt GmbH, Germany
  34. Colorado State University, United States
  35. Duke University, United States
  36. Bielefeld University, Germany
  37. University of British Columbia, Canada
  38. Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
  39. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, United States
  40. Istituto Superiore di Sanità - National Center for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, Italy
  41. Washington State University - Health Sciences Spokane, United States
  42. Washington State University, United States
  43. University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium
  44. Ghent University Hospitals, Belgium
  45. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, United States
  46. Stanford University School of Medicine, United States
  47. SRI International, United States
  48. Jönköping University, Sweden
  49. Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom
  50. Örebro University, Sweden
  51. Healthy Twin Association of Mongolia, Mongolia
  52. Hiroshima University, Japan
  53. King's College, United Kingdom
  54. VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands
  55. Michigan State University, United States
  56. Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway
  57. University of Minnesota, United States
  58. University of Colorado, United States
  59. University of Washington, United States
  60. Osaka University, Japan
  61. Kio University, Japan
  62. University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  63. Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospitals, Denmark
  64. Institute for Molecular Medicine FIMM, Finland
1 figure, 2 tables and 1 additional file

Figures

Additive genetic (grey), shared environmental (black) and unique environmental (white) variances of height across birth-year cohorts for the pooled data and by geographic-cultural region.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.20320.003

Tables

Table 1

Descriptive statistics of age and height by sex, birth year and geographic-cultural region. Names list of the participating twin cohorts in this study: two cohorts from Australia (Australian Twin Registry and Queensland Twin Register), six cohorts from East-Asia (Korean Twin-Family Register, Mongolian Twin Registry, Osaka University Aged Twin Registry, South Korea Twin Registry, Qingdao Twin Registry of Adults and West Japan Twins and Higher Order Multiple Births Registry), 18 cohorts from Europe (Adult Netherlands Twin Registry, Berlin Twin Register, Bielefeld Longitudinal Study of Adult Twins, Danish Twin Cohort, East Flanders Prospective Twin Survey, Finnish Older Twin Cohort, FinnTwin12, FinnTwin16, Genesis 12–19 Study, Hungarian Twin Registry, Italian Twin Registry, Murcia Twin Registry, Norwegian Twin Registry, Swedish Twin Cohorts, Swedish Young Male Twins Study of Adults, TCHAD-study, TwinsUK and Young Netherlands Twin Registry), two cohorts from South-Asia and Middle-East (Sri Lanka Twin Registry and Turkish Twin Study) and 12 cohorts from North-America (California Twin Program, Carolina African American Twin Study of Aging, Colorado Twin Registry, Michigan State University Twin Registry, Mid Atlantic Twin Registry, Minnesota Twin Registry, NAS-NRC Twin Registry, SRI-international, University of British Columbia Twin Project, University of Southern California Twin Study, University of Washington Twin Registry and Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging).

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.20320.002

Age

Height

All cohorts

All cohorts

Europe

NA and Australia

East Asia

Birth year

Mean

SD

Range

N

Mean (F, p-value)*

SD (F, p-value)

N

Mean

SD

N

Mean

SD

N

Mean

SD

Men

1886–1909

67.0

7.5

53.5–99.2

3747

171.6 (15, < 0.001)

6.34 (2.5,0.019)

3569

171.5

6.27

178

174.6

6.88

1910–1919

52.2

16.2

20.0–95.8

9171

174.2 (23, < 0.001)

6.72 (5.0,<0.001)

4117

173.3

6.37

5052

174.9

6.91

1920–1929

51.6

16.1

20.0–90.9

23147

175.4 (62, < 0.001)

6.81 (5.7,<0.001)

6382

173.9

6.42

16714

176.0

6.82

1930–1939

57.5

10.5

33.5–83.2

12028

175.7 (413, < 0.001)

6.70 (2.9,<0.001)

9308

175.2

6.42

2658

178.1

6.78

1940–1949

49.3

10.6

23.5–73.9

22967

177.4 (72, < 0.001)

6.73 (2.5,<0.001)

16629

177.0

6.53

6235

178.4

6.95

68

164.8

6.57

1950–1959

41.4

10.0

19.5–65.0

24560

178.4 (120, < 0.001)

6.96 (6.5,<0.001)

15199

178.5

6.73

9124

178.7

7.04

161

167.1

4.79

1960–1969

35.5

7.1

19.5–54.0

13264

179.0 (99, < 0.001)

7.49 (2.3,<0.001)

6218

179.6

7.04

6574

179.2

7.22

298

168.1

6.24

1970–1979

28.7

5.4

19.5–44.0

14975

179.9 (121, < 0.001)

7.55 (5.5,<0.001)

10339

180.7

7.01

3906

179.7

7.51

456

170.1

5.68

1980–1994

23.1

3.2

19.5–34.4

9948

178.4 (70, < 0.001)

7.59 (4.9,<0.001)

5077

178.8

7.22

4066

179.4

7.49

329

173.1

6.37

Women

1886–1909

68.5

8.1

53.5–98.0

5423

160.2 (23, < 0.001)

6.14 (3.3,0.006)

5011

160.2

6.11

412

160.2

6.41

1910–1919

62.0

10.9

43.6–95.9

7169

161.1 (18, < 0.001)

5.93 (2.5,0.002)

5621

161.0

5.85

1548

161.2

6.20

1920–1929

59.7

11.4

37.5–91.7

10975

162.1 (65, < 0.001)

5.99 (3.8,<0.001)

7908

162.0

5.89

3052

162.4

6.16

1930–1939

57.9

10.0

33.5–83.0

14610

162.7 (249, < 0.001)

6.05 (5.8,<0.001)

11226

162.5

5.83

3344

163.2

6.49

1940–1949

49.9

10.2

23.5–74.0

28537

163.7 (175, < 0.001)

6.19 (10.3,<0.001)

20097

163.9

5.93

8285

163.5

6.57

100

153.6

5.33

1950–1959

41.3

9.5

19.5–64.0

31250

164.4 (146, < 0.001)

6.58 (13.6,<0.001)

18817

164.8

6.22

12080

164.1

6.78

225

155.1

5.10

1960–1969

35.8

6.9

19.5–54.3

20422

165.1 (163, < 0.001)

7.00 (8.6,<0.001)

9604

166.2

6.58

10182

164.6

6.87

438

156.8

5.17

1970–1979

29.3

5.4

19.5–44.3

19893

165.9 (180, < 0.001)

7.27 (11.5,<0.001)

11819

167.3

6.67

7034

165.0

7.22

718

158.5

5.58

1980–1994

23.4

3.3

19.5–34.3

14694

164.7 (118, < 0.001)

7.07 (6.2,<0.001)

7291

165.6

6.77

6274

164.9

6.96

633

159.8

5.74

  1. *Welch ANOVA test for equality of means

  2. Levene’s test for equality of variances; SD: standard deviation

Table 2

Proportion of the height variance explained by additive genetic, shared environmental and unique environmental factors by birth year, sex and geographic-cultural region.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.20320.004

Men

Women

Additive genetics

Shared environment

Unique environment

Additive genetics

Shared environment

Unique environment

Birth year

A

95% CIs

C

95% CIs

E

95% CIs

A

95% CIs

C

95% CIs

E

95% CIs

All cohorts

1886–1909

0.78

0.69

0.80

0.00

0.00

0.08

0.22

0.20

0.25

0.53

0.43

0.62

0.13

0.05

0.21

0.34

0.31

0.37

1910–1919

0.82

0.76

0.87

0.04

0.00

0.10

0.14

0.13

0.15

0.67

0.60

0.74

0.11

0.04

0.18

0.22

0.20

0.24

1920–1929

0.72

0.69

0.76

0.14

0.10

0.17

0.14

0.13

0.15

0.70

0.64

0.76

0.12

0.07

0.18

0.18

0.17

0.19

1930–1939

0.73

0.68

0.79

0.10

0.04

0.16

0.16

0.15

0.18

0.74

0.68

0.79

0.11

0.06

0.16

0.15

0.14

0.16

1940–1949

0.74

0.70

0.78

0.13

0.09

0.17

0.13

0.12

0.13

0.78

0.75

0.82

0.09

0.05

0.13

0.13

0.12

0.13

1950–1959

0.72

0.69

0.76

0.16

0.12

0.20

0.12

0.11

0.12

0.73

0.69

0.76

0.15

0.11

0.18

0.12

0.12

0.13

1960–1969

0.69

0.63

0.76

0.16

0.09

0.21

0.15

0.14

0.16

0.70

0.66

0.75

0.14

0.09

0.18

0.16

0.15

0.17

1970–1979

0.77

0.72

0.83

0.11

0.06

0.17

0.11

0.10

0.12

0.68

0.64

0.73

0.19

0.14

0.23

0.13

0.12

0.13

1980–1994

0.84

0.77

0.90

0.05

0.00

0.13

0.11

0.10

0.12

0.66

0.61

0.72

0.21

0.16

0.27

0.13

0.12

0.13

Europe

1886–1909

0.78

0.69

0.80

0.00

0.00

0.08

0.22

0.20

0.25

0.50

0.40

0.60

0.14

0.06

0.23

0.35

0.32

0.39

1910–1919

0.85

0.79

0.87

0.00

0.00

0.07

0.15

0.13

0.16

0.66

0.58

0.74

0.10

0.02

0.17

0.24

0.22

0.26

1920–1929

0.69

0.62

0.76

0.14

0.07

0.20

0.17

0.16

0.19

0.72

0.65

0.79

0.09

0.03

0.16

0.19

0.17

0.21

1930–1939

0.75

0.69

0.81

0.11

0.05

0.17

0.14

0.13

0.16

0.76

0.70

0.82

0.09

0.03

0.14

0.16

0.15

0.17

1940–1949

0.77

0.72

0.82

0.10

0.06

0.15

0.13

0.12

0.13

0.79

0.75

0.83

0.08

0.04

0.13

0.13

0.12

0.13

1950–1959

0.72

0.68

0.77

0.16

0.11

0.20

0.12

0.11

0.12

0.79

0.75

0.83

0.09

0.05

0.13

0.12

0.11

0.13

1960–1969

0.74

0.66

0.83

0.15

0.06

0.23

0.11

0.10

0.12

0.78

0.72

0.85

0.08

0.02

0.15

0.13

0.12

0.14

1970–1979

0.81

0.74

0.88

0.09

0.02

0.16

0.10

0.09

0.10

0.74

0.69

0.81

0.15

0.09

0.21

0.11

0.10

0.11

1980–1994

0.87

0.77

0.92

0.04

0.00

0.14

0.09

0.08

0.10

0.64

0.57

0.72

0.26

0.18

0.32

0.10

0.09

0.11

North America and Australia

1886–1909

0.83

0.33

0.90

0.01

0.00

0.49

0.16

0.10

0.26

0.76

0.43

0.82

0.00

0.00

0.31

0.24

0.18

0.32

1910–1919

0.78

0.70

0.87

0.09

0.00

0.17

0.13

0.12

0.15

0.60

0.44

0.78

0.24

0.06

0.39

0.16

0.14

0.19

1920–1929

0.73

0.69

0.77

0.14

0.10

0.18

0.13

0.12

0.14

0.63

0.52

0.76

0.22

0.09

0.33

0.15

0.14

0.17

1930–1939

0.81

0.66

0.83

0.00

0.00

0.14

0.19

0.17

0.22

0.70

0.59

0.82

0.17

0.04

0.28

0.13

0.12

0.15

1940–1949

0.69

0.61

0.77

0.19

0.10

0.27

0.13

0.12

0.14

0.80

0.72

0.87

0.08

0.00

0.15

0.13

0.12

0.14

1950–1959

0.75

0.68

0.82

0.14

0.07

0.21

0.11

0.10

0.12

0.67

0.61

0.73

0.21

0.15

0.26

0.13

0.12

0.13

1960–1969

0.66

0.58

0.76

0.16

0.06

0.24

0.18

0.17

0.20

0.63

0.57

0.70

0.18

0.11

0.24

0.18

0.17

0.20

1970–1979

0.68

0.57

0.81

0.18

0.05

0.29

0.14

0.13

0.16

0.60

0.53

0.67

0.25

0.18

0.32

0.15

0.14

0.16

1980–1994

0.83

0.72

0.89

0.04

0.00

0.16

0.12

0.11

0.14

0.71

0.62

0.81

0.14

0.04

0.23

0.15

0.14

0.16

East Asia

1940–1949

0.83

0.33

0.97

0.12

0.00

0.61

0.05

0.03

0.12

0.71

0.17

0.94

0.19

0.00

0.73

0.10

0.06

0.18

1950–1959

0.64

0.24

0.91

0.23

0.00

0.63

0.13

0.08

0.20

0.42

0.14

0.92

0.48

0.00

0.75

0.10

0.07

0.15

1960–1969

0.67

0.36

0.94

0.24

0.00

0.56

0.08

0.06

0.12

0.92

0.67

0.94

0.00

0.00

0.25

0.08

0.06

0.10

1970–1979

0.85

0.51

0.95

0.08

0.00

0.43

0.07

0.05

0.09

0.79

0.52

0.96

0.17

0.00

0.43

0.05

0.04

0.06

1980–1994

0.88

0.51

0.91

0.00

0.00

0.37

0.12

0.09

0.17

0.58

0.34

0.90

0.31

0.00

0.55

0.11

0.09

0.14

Additional files

Supplementary file 1

Supplementary tables.

(A) Height variance explained by additive genetic, shared environmental and unique environmental factors by birth year, sex and geographic-cultural region. (B) Model fit statistics for adult height by birth-year cohorts (all twin cohorts together). (C) Height variance and proportion of height variance explained by additive genetic, shared environmental and unique environmental factors by birth year, sex and geographic-cultural region.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.20320.005

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  1. Aline Jelenkovic
  2. Yoon-Mi Hur
  3. Reijo Sund
  4. Yoshie Yokoyama
  5. Sisira H Siribaddana
  6. Matthew Hotopf
  7. Athula Sumathipala
  8. Fruhling Rijsdijk
  9. Qihua Tan
  10. Dongfeng Zhang
  11. Zengchang Pang
  12. Sari Aaltonen
  13. Kauko Heikkilä
  14. Sevgi Y Öncel
  15. Fazil Aliev
  16. Esther Rebato
  17. Adam D Tarnoki
  18. David L Tarnoki
  19. Kaare Christensen
  20. Axel Skytthe
  21. Kirsten O Kyvik
  22. Judy L Silberg
  23. Lindon J Eaves
  24. Hermine H Maes
  25. Tessa L Cutler
  26. John L Hopper
  27. Juan R Ordoñana
  28. Juan F Sánchez-Romera
  29. Lucia Colodro-Conde
  30. Wendy Cozen
  31. Amie E Hwang
  32. Thomas M Mack
  33. Joohon Sung
  34. Yun-Mi Song
  35. Sarah Yang
  36. Kayoung Lee
  37. Carol E Franz
  38. William S Kremen
  39. Michael J Lyons
  40. Andreas Busjahn
  41. Tracy L Nelson
  42. Keith E Whitfield
  43. Christian Kandler
  44. Kerry L Jang
  45. Margaret Gatz
  46. David A Butler
  47. Maria A Stazi
  48. Corrado Fagnani
  49. Cristina D'Ippolito
  50. Glen E Duncan
  51. Dedra Buchwald
  52. Catherine A Derom
  53. Robert F Vlietinck
  54. Ruth JF Loos
  55. Nicholas G Martin
  56. Sarah E Medland
  57. Grant W Montgomery
  58. Hoe-Uk Jeong
  59. Gary E Swan
  60. Ruth Krasnow
  61. Patrik KE Magnusson
  62. Nancy L Pedersen
  63. Anna K Dahl-Aslan
  64. Tom A McAdams
  65. Thalia C Eley
  66. Alice M Gregory
  67. Per Tynelius
  68. Laura A Baker
  69. Catherine Tuvblad
  70. Gombojav Bayasgalan
  71. Danshiitsoodol Narandalai
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