Analysis on the heritability of diabetes, based on data from the Chinese adult twins / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To analyze the heritability of diabetes among the Chinese twin adults.@*Methods@#A total of 10 253 same-sex twin pairs aged 25 years and older, were selected from the Chinese National Twin Registry (CNTR) program. Heritability of diabetes was calculated by using the structural equation model.@*Results@#After adjusted for age and gender, the overall heritability rates of diabetes were 0.41 (0.15-0.75), 0.83 (0.72-0.91) and 0.34 (0.04-0.73) in the <45 and ≥45 years twin pairs, respectively. After adjusted for age, rates of heritability appeared as 0.37 (0.05-0.78) and 0.88 (0.79-0.94) in men and women, respectively.@*Conclusions@#Diabetes is affected by both genetic and environmental factors. The genetic effect of diabetes seemed stronger on female than that on male twins but was dying down along with ageing.