TY - JOUR
T1 - Persistence of parental‐reported asthma at early ages: A longitudinal twin study
AU - Slob, Elise Margaretha Adriana
AU - Longo, Cristina
AU - Vijverberg, Susanne J. H.
AU - van Beijsterveldt, Toos
AU - Bartels, Meike
AU - Hottenga, Jouke Jan
AU - Pijnenburg, Mariëlle W.
AU - Koppelman, Gerard H.
AU - Maitland‐van Der Zee, Anke‐Hilse
AU - Dolan, Conor V.
AU - Boomsma, Dorret I.
PY - 2022/3
Y1 - 2022/3
N2 - BackgroundCurrently, we cannot predict whether a pre-school child with asthma-like symptoms will have asthma at school age. Whether genetic information can help in this prediction depends on the role of genetic factors in persistence of pre-school to school-age asthma. We examined to what extent genetic and environmental factors contribute to persistence of asthma-like symptoms at ages 3 to asthma at age 7 using a bivariate genetic model for longitudinal twin data.MethodsWe performed a cohort study in monozygotic and dizygotic twins from the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR, n = 21,541 twin pairs). Bivariate genetic models were fitted to longitudinal data on asthma-like symptoms reported by parents at age 3 and 7 years to estimate the contribution of genetic and environmental factors.ResultsBivariate genetic modeling showed a correlation on the liability scale between asthma-like symptoms at age 3 and asthma at age 7 of 0.746 and the contribution of genetics was estimated to be 0.917. The genetic analyses indicated a substantial influence of genetic factors on asthma-like symptoms at ages 3 and 7 (heritability 80% and 90%, respectively); hence, contribution of environmental factors was low. Persistence was explained by a high (rg = 0.807) genetic correlation.ConclusionParental-reported asthma-like symptoms at age 3 and asthma at age 7 are highly heritably. The phenotype of asthma-like symptoms at age 3 and 7 was highly correlated and mainly due to heritable factors, indicating high persistence of asthma development over ages 3 and 7.
AB - BackgroundCurrently, we cannot predict whether a pre-school child with asthma-like symptoms will have asthma at school age. Whether genetic information can help in this prediction depends on the role of genetic factors in persistence of pre-school to school-age asthma. We examined to what extent genetic and environmental factors contribute to persistence of asthma-like symptoms at ages 3 to asthma at age 7 using a bivariate genetic model for longitudinal twin data.MethodsWe performed a cohort study in monozygotic and dizygotic twins from the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR, n = 21,541 twin pairs). Bivariate genetic models were fitted to longitudinal data on asthma-like symptoms reported by parents at age 3 and 7 years to estimate the contribution of genetic and environmental factors.ResultsBivariate genetic modeling showed a correlation on the liability scale between asthma-like symptoms at age 3 and asthma at age 7 of 0.746 and the contribution of genetics was estimated to be 0.917. The genetic analyses indicated a substantial influence of genetic factors on asthma-like symptoms at ages 3 and 7 (heritability 80% and 90%, respectively); hence, contribution of environmental factors was low. Persistence was explained by a high (rg = 0.807) genetic correlation.ConclusionParental-reported asthma-like symptoms at age 3 and asthma at age 7 are highly heritably. The phenotype of asthma-like symptoms at age 3 and 7 was highly correlated and mainly due to heritable factors, indicating high persistence of asthma development over ages 3 and 7.
U2 - 10.1111/pai.13762
DO - 10.1111/pai.13762
M3 - Article
SN - 0905-6157
VL - 33
SP - 1
EP - 8
JO - Pediatric Allergy and Immunology
JF - Pediatric Allergy and Immunology
IS - 3
M1 - e13762
ER -