The Danish Twin Registry, Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
Scand J Public Health. 2011 Jul;39(7 Suppl):185-90. doi: 10.1177/1403494811399170.
The Danish Twin Registry (DTR) has for more than 50 years been based on surveys and clinical investigations and over the two last decades also on register linkage. Currently these two approaches are merged within Statistics Denmark.
Here we report on three major groups of register-based research in the DTR that used the uniqueness of twinning. First, we focus on the ''long-term prognosis'' of being a twin compared with being a singleton and show that Danish twins have health trajectories in adulthood similar to singletons, which is a result of interest for twins and their families as well as a test of the fetal origins hypothesis that states that fetal growth restriction has long-term health consequences. Secondly, we summarise some of the most important register-based ''classical twin studies'', e.g. heritability studies on lifespan and exceptional longevity. Finally, we illustrate how the co-twin control method in a register setting can be used to control for the effect of rearing environment and genetic factors in studies of the association between exposures and health.
The spectrum of register-based twin studies is very wide and have changed in accordance with methodological and data resource developments.
丹麦双胞胎登记处（DTR）成立至今已有 50 多年，其研究主要基于调查和临床研究，在过去二十年中，也基于登记处的链接。目前，这两种方法都由丹麦统计局合并管理。
在此，我们报告了 DTR 中基于登记的三种主要研究群体，这些研究利用了双胞胎的独特性。首先，我们专注于与单胎相比，作为双胞胎的“长期预后”，并表明丹麦双胞胎在成年后的健康轨迹与单胎相似，这一结果对双胞胎及其家庭以及胎儿起源假说（即胎儿生长受限具有长期健康后果）的检验都具有重要意义。其次，我们总结了一些基于登记的“经典双胞胎研究”，例如关于寿命和超长寿命的遗传力研究。最后，我们举例说明了在登记环境中使用同卵双胞胎对照方法如何控制养育环境和遗传因素对暴露与健康之间关联的研究的影响。
基于登记的双胞胎研究的范围非常广泛，并随着方法学和数据资源的发展而发生变化。
