Prescott C A, Hewitt J K, Heath A C, Truett K R, Neale M C, Eaves L J
Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond 23298-0710.
J Stud Alcohol. 1994 Jan;55(1):18-33. doi: 10.15288/jsa.1994.55.18.
A growing literature supports genetic contributions to familial resemblance for alcohol use characteristics, but few studies have focused on the mechanisms underlying alcohol use among older persons. We report patterns of alcohol use in a U.S. volunteer sample of 3,049 female and 1,070 male twins aged 50 to 96. Significant gender and age effects were found for self-report measures of current and lifetime alcohol use, with greater intake among males and current and lifetime abstinence more common among older participants. Comparisons with data obtained 4 years previously revealed high stability for quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption. Twin pairs with more frequent social contact tended to be more similar for lifetime and current alcohol use. Biometrical genetic modeling results indicate that use of alcohol is highly familial, with both genetic and shared environmental factors contributing to initiation of alcohol use among men and women. Among drinkers, however, the degree of twin resemblance for consumption behaviors is low to moderate and appears to be regulated by shared genes rather than shared environments. These data are consistent with a multidimensional process, suggesting that the determinants of whether one drinks in older age differ from those underlying how much or how often alcohol is consumed.
越来越多的文献支持基因对饮酒特征家族相似性的贡献，但很少有研究关注老年人饮酒的潜在机制。我们报告了在美国一个由3049名女性和1070名男性双胞胎组成的志愿者样本中的饮酒模式，这些双胞胎年龄在50至96岁之间。在当前和终生饮酒的自我报告测量中发现了显著的性别和年龄效应，男性饮酒量更大，而当前和终生戒酒在老年参与者中更为常见。与4年前获得的数据进行比较显示，酒精消费的数量和频率具有高度稳定性。社交接触更频繁的双胞胎对在终生和当前饮酒方面往往更相似。生物统计学遗传模型结果表明，饮酒具有高度家族性，基因和共享环境因素都对男性和女性饮酒的开始有影响。然而，在饮酒者中，双胞胎在消费行为上的相似程度为低到中等，并且似乎是由共享基因而非共享环境调节的。这些数据与一个多维度过程一致，表明老年人是否饮酒的决定因素与饮酒量或饮酒频率的潜在决定因素不同。
