Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2013 Nov;37(11):1939-46. doi: 10.1111/acer.12185. Epub 2013 Jun 13.
Differences in age at initiation of alcohol use and rates of problem drinking between African Americans and European Americans are well documented, but the association between early and problem use-and distinctions by ethnic group in this association-have yet to be examined in a genetically informative framework.
Data were derived from a longitudinal study of female twins in Missouri. The sample was composed of 3,532 twins (13.6% African-American [AA], 86.4% European-American [EA]), who participated in the fourth wave of data collection and reported consumption of at least 1 alcoholic drink over the lifetime. Mean age at Wave 4 was 21.7 (range = 18 to 29) years. Twin modeling was conducted to estimate the relative contributions of additive genetic (A), shared environmental (C), and unique environmental (E) factors to variation in age at first drink and problem alcohol use and the cross-phenotype overlap in these influences.
Early initiation of alcohol use predicted problem use in EA but not AA women. Separate AA and EA twin models produced substantially different estimates (but not statistically different models) of the relative contributions of A and C to problem alcohol use but similar genetic correlations between the phenotypes. Whereas 33% of the variance in the EA model of problem use was attributed to C, no evidence for C was found in the AA model. Heritability estimates for problem alcohol use were 41% in the AA model, 21% in the EA model. Evidence for A and C were found in both AA and EA models of age at first drink, but the A estimate was higher in the EA than AA model (44% vs. 26%).
Findings are suggestive of distinctions between AA versus EA women in the relative contribution of genetic and environmental influences on the development of problem drinking.
非裔美国人和欧洲裔美国人在开始饮酒的年龄和酗酒率方面存在差异，这已得到充分记录，但在遗传信息框架内，尚未研究早期和问题使用之间的关联以及这种关联在不同种族群体中的区别。
数据来自密苏里州女性双胞胎的纵向研究。该样本由 3532 对双胞胎（13.6%为非裔美国人[AA]，86.4%为欧洲裔美国人[EA]）组成，他们参加了第四波数据收集，并报告了一生中至少饮用 1 种含酒精饮料。第 4 波的平均年龄为 21.7 岁（范围为 18 至 29 岁）。采用双胞胎模型来估计加性遗传（A）、共享环境（C）和独特环境（E）因素对首次饮酒年龄和问题饮酒的变化以及这些影响在表型之间的交叉重叠的相对贡献。
在欧洲裔美国人中，早期饮酒开始预测问题饮酒，但在非裔美国人中则不然。针对非裔美国人和欧洲裔美国人的单独双胞胎模型对 A 和 C 对问题饮酒的相对贡献产生了截然不同的估计（但不是统计学上不同的模型），但表型之间的遗传相关性相似。在 EA 模型中，33%的问题使用方差归因于 C，而在 AA 模型中则没有发现 C 的证据。AA 模型中问题饮酒的遗传率估计值为 41%，EA 模型中为 21%。在 AA 和 EA 模型中均发现了首次饮酒年龄的 A 和 C 证据，但 EA 模型中的 A 估计值高于 AA 模型（44%对 26%）。
这些发现表明，在遗传和环境因素对酗酒发展的相对影响方面，非裔美国人和欧洲裔美国女性之间存在差异。
