Mosing Miriam A, Pedersen Nancy L, Martin Nicholas G, Wright Margaret J
Genetic Epidemiology Unit, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia.
Twin Res Hum Genet. 2010 Aug;13(4):322-9. doi: 10.1375/twin.13.4.322.
Optimism has a positive influence on mental and somatic health throughout lifetime and into old age. This association is mainly due to shared genetic influences, with some indication of sex differences in the heritability of these and related traits (e.g., depression and subjective wellbeing). Here we extend our initial study of Australian twins by combining with data available from Swedish twins, in order to increase the power to explore potential sex differences in the genetic architecture of optimism, mental and self-rated health and their covariation. Optimism, mental, and self-rated health were measured in 3053 Australian (501 identical female (MZf), 153 identical male (MZm), 274 non-identical female (DZf), 77 non-identical male (DZm), and 242 non-identical opposite-sex twin pairs, and 561 single twins; mean age 60.97 +/- 8.76), and 812 Swedish (71 MZf, 53 MZm, 93 DZf and 67 DZm twin pairs, and 244 single twins; mean age 60 +/- 14.3) twin individuals using the Life Orientation Test (LOT), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and a single-item self-rating of overall health, respectively. In females all three traits were moderately heritable (.27-.47), whereas in males heritability was substantially lower (.08-.19), but genetic modeling showed that sex differences were not significant. The absence of significant sex differences, despite the consistent trend across the two cohorts, is likely due to a lack of power, raising the importance for future studies, on the same or similar traits, to utilize large samples and to keep the possibility of sex differences in mind when conducting their analyses.
乐观主义在整个人生直至老年阶段都对身心健康有着积极影响。这种关联主要归因于共同的遗传影响，有迹象表明这些及相关特质（如抑郁和主观幸福感）的遗传度存在性别差异。在此，我们通过结合瑞典双胞胎的数据来扩展对澳大利亚双胞胎的初步研究，以增强探索乐观主义、心理健康和自评健康的遗传结构及其协变中潜在性别差异的能力。分别使用生活取向测试（LOT）、一般健康问卷（GHQ）和一项总体健康自评项目，对3053名澳大利亚双胞胎个体（501对同卵女性双胞胎（MZf）、153对同卵男性双胞胎（MZm）、274对异卵女性双胞胎（DZf）、77对异卵男性双胞胎（DZm）以及242对异卵异性双胞胎对，还有561名单胎双胞胎；平均年龄60.97±8.76岁）和812名瑞典双胞胎个体（71对MZf、53对MZm、93对DZf和67对DZm双胞胎对，以及244名单胎双胞胎；平均年龄60±14.3岁）的乐观主义、心理健康和自评健康进行了测量。在女性中，所有这三个特质的遗传度都处于中等水平（0.27 - 0.47），而在男性中遗传度则显著较低（0.08 - 0.19），但遗传模型显示性别差异并不显著。尽管两个队列呈现出一致的趋势，但缺乏显著的性别差异可能是由于样本量不足导致的，这凸显了未来针对相同或相似特质进行研究时使用大样本并在分析时考虑性别差异可能性的重要性。
