Womack Sean R, Beam Christopher R, Giangrande Evan J, Scharf Rebecca J, Tong Xin, Ponnapalli Medha, Davis Deborah W, Turkheimer Eric
Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Gilmer Hall, 485 McCormick Rd, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Behav Genet. 2023 Nov;53(5-6):385-403. doi: 10.1007/s10519-023-10151-0. Epub 2023 Aug 27.
Owing to high rates of prenatal complications, twins are, on average, substantially smaller than population norms on physical measurements including height, weight, and head circumference at birth. By early childhood, twins are physically average. This study is the first to explore the process of catch-up growth by fitting asymptotic growth models to age-standardized height, weight, and head circumference measurements in a community sample of twins (n = 1281, 52.3% female) followed at up to 17 time points from birth to 15 years. Catch-up growth was rapid over the first year and plateaued around the population mean by early childhood. Shared environmental factors accounted for the majority of individual differences in initial physical size (57.7-65.5%), whereas additive genetic factors accounted for the majority of individual differences in the upper asymptotes of height, weight, and head circumference (73.4-92.6%). Both additive genetic and shared environmental factors were associated with variance in how quickly twins caught up. Gestational age and family SES emerged as important environmental correlates of physical catch-up growth.
由于产前并发症发生率较高，双胞胎出生时在身高、体重和头围等身体测量指标上平均比总体标准小得多。到幼儿期，双胞胎的身体发育达到平均水平。本研究首次通过对一个双胞胎社区样本（n = 1281，52.3%为女性）从出生到15岁的多达17个时间点的年龄标准化身高、体重和头围测量值拟合渐近生长模型，来探索追赶生长的过程。追赶生长在第一年迅速发生，并在幼儿期达到总体平均水平后趋于平稳。共享环境因素在初始身体大小的个体差异中占多数（57.7 - 65.5%），而加性遗传因素在身高、体重和头围的上渐近线的个体差异中占多数（73.4 - 92.6%）。加性遗传因素和共享环境因素都与双胞胎追赶速度的差异有关。胎龄和家庭社会经济地位是身体追赶生长的重要环境相关因素。
