rkh.sePublications from Swedish Red Cross University
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • harvard-anglia-ruskin-university
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Heritability of gestational weight gain--a Swedish register-based twin study
Karolinska Institutet.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7295-7341
Department of Social Research, Helsinki, Finland.
Karolinska Institutet.
University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
Show others and affiliations
2015 (English)In: Twin Research and Human Genetics, ISSN 1832-4274, E-ISSN 1839-2628, Vol. 18, no 4, p. 410-8Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Gestational weight gain (GWG) is a complex trait involving intrauterine environmental, maternal environmental, and genetic factors. However, the extent to which these factors contribute to the total variation in GWG is unclear. We therefore examined the genetic and environmental influences on the variation in GWG in the first and second pregnancy in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin mother-pairs. Further, we explored if any co-variance existed between factors influencing the variation in GWG of the mothers’ first and second pregnancies. By using Swedish nationwide record-linkage data, we identified 694 twin mother-pairs with complete data on their first pregnancy and 465 twin mother-pairs with complete data on their second pregnancy during 1982–2010. For a subanalysis, 143 twin mother-pairs had complete data on two consecutive pregnancies during the study period. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to assess the contribution of genetic, shared, and unique environmental factors to the variation in GWG. A bivariate Cholesky decomposition model was used for the subanalysis. We found that genetic factors explained 43% (95% CI: 36–51%) of the variation in GWG in the first pregnancy and 26% (95% CI: 16–36%) in the second pregnancy. The remaining variance was explained by unique environmental factors. Both overlapping and distinct genetic and unique environmental factors influenced GWG in the first and the second pregnancy. This study showed that GWG has a moderate heritability, suggesting that a large part of the variation in the trait can be explained by unique environmental factors.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2015. Vol. 18, no 4, p. 410-8
National Category
Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:rkh:diva-2400DOI: 10.1017/thg.2015.38PubMedID: 26111621OAI: oai:DiVA.org:rkh-2400DiVA, id: diva2:1096021
Available from: 2017-05-16 Created: 2017-05-16 Last updated: 2025-02-21Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Pregnancy weight gain: family studies on the effects on offspring’s body size and blood pressure
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Pregnancy weight gain: family studies on the effects on offspring’s body size and blood pressure
2016 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Introduction: Increasing maternal weight gain during pregnancy, gestational weight gain (GWG), is associated with several adverse outcomes in the child, e.g. high birth weight, childhood overweight and obesity, as well as adult blood pressure (BP). Studies have also shown that specific periods of pregnancy might be more sensitive in terms of influencing these outcomes. However, the aforementioned associations could be explained by genetic and/or environmental factors which are shared between the mother and child. As far as we know, no studies have examined to what extent these genetic and environmental factors explain the variation in GWG.

Aims: The overall aim of this PhD thesis was therefore to investigate the possible associations between GWG and the children’s birth weight and body mass index (BMI) during childhood (study 2), and BP during early adulthood (study 3), while taking environmental and genetic factors shared between the mother and child into account (within the twin/sibling pairs). The current thesis also aimed at exploring how much of the variation in GWG which is determined by genetic (the heritability) and both unique and common environmental factors (study 1).

Methods and Results: Study 1 was a register-based twin study with Swedish female monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs with children born 1982-1989 and 1992- 2010. Genetic factors accounted for 43% of the variation in GWG in the first pregnancy (N = 694 twin mother-pairs) and 26% in the second pregnancy (N = 465 twin mother-pairs). Unique environmental factors explained the remaining variation in GWG. Studies 2 and 3 were both prospective cohort studies, where study 2 was based on a data-collection of Swedish MZ twin mothers born 1962 to 1975 and their children (N = 82 twin mother-pairs), and study 3 was register-based and included Swedish male sibling pairs born 1982-1989 (N = 4908 brother pairs). In study 2, the results indicated that total, and possibly also second and third trimester weight gain, were associated with birth weight in the offspring within the twin pairs in the fully adjusted model. In terms of GWG and offspring weight and BMI during infancy and childhood, no associations were found. In study 3, no significant associations were found between GWG and systolic BP, or diastolic BP, or the offspring’s risk of hypertension, neither within nor between the sibling pairs.

Conclusions: This thesis shows that the total GWG, and specifically weight gain during the second and third trimester, seem to be positively associated with offspring birth weight, but no effects were seen for BMI during infancy and childhood. However, due to the limited sample size, this requires further investigation. Moreover, no association was found between total GWG and the male sibling pairs’ BP at the age of 18 years. The variation in GWG seems to be largely explained by the mother’s unique environment during pregnancy and to a smaller degree by genetic factors.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Karolinska Institutet, 2016
National Category
Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:rkh:diva-2402 (URN)978-91-7676-355-1 (ISBN)
Available from: 2017-05-17 Created: 2017-05-17 Last updated: 2025-02-21Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textPubMed

Authority records

Scheers Andersson, Elina

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Scheers Andersson, Elina
In the same journal
Twin Research and Human Genetics
Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn
Total: 210 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • harvard-anglia-ruskin-university
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf