Andrew T, Hart D J, Snieder H, de Lange M, Spector T D, MacGregor A J
Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK.
Twin Res. 2001 Dec;4(6):464-77. doi: 10.1375/1369052012803.
The classic twin study is sometimes described as "the perfect natural experiment" for the investigation of the aetiology of complex disease, but assumptions of the twin design need to be empirically tested if their results are to be considered unbiased and representative of singleton populations. In this study comparisons of disease and prevalence of lifestyle characteristics have been made between twin participants in the St Thomas' Hospital UK adult twin registry, the largest twin volunteer register in the UK for the study of diseases of ageing, and a parallel population-based study of singleton women. The only differences found were for weight, where monozygotic (MZ) twins were lighter and had a smaller variance than dizygotic (DZ) twins and singletons. For the other variables studied, volunteer twins were not found to differ from age-matched singleton women in distribution or prevalence of: bone mineral density, osteoarthritis, blood pressure, hypertensive drug use, height, history of hysterectomy and ovariectomy, menopausal status and current alcohol and overall tobacco consumption. We conclude that the results of twin studies can be generalised to singleton populations for these measures and disease outcomes.
经典的双胞胎研究有时被描述为研究复杂疾病病因的“完美自然实验”，但如果要使双胞胎研究的结果被视为无偏且能代表单胎人群，那么双胞胎设计的假设需要经过实证检验。在本研究中，我们对英国最大的用于研究衰老疾病的双胞胎志愿者登记处——圣托马斯医院英国成人双胞胎登记处的双胞胎参与者，与一项基于平行人群的单胎女性研究进行了疾病及生活方式特征患病率的比较。唯一发现的差异在于体重，同卵双胞胎比异卵双胞胎和单胎更轻，且方差更小。对于所研究的其他变量，未发现志愿者双胞胎在以下方面的分布或患病率与年龄匹配的单胎女性存在差异：骨密度、骨关节炎、血压、高血压药物使用情况、身高、子宫切除术和卵巢切除术史、绝经状态以及当前酒精和总体烟草消费量。我们得出结论，对于这些测量指标和疾病结局，双胞胎研究的结果可以推广到单胎人群。
