Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T22:57:54.665Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Exploring the inter-relationship of smoking age-at-onset, cigarette consumption and smoking persistence: genes or environment?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2007

KATHERINE I. MORLEY ,
MICHAEL T. LYNSKEY ,
PAMELA A. F. MADDEN ,
SUSAN A. TRELOAR ,
ANDREW C. HEATH  and
NICHOLAS G. MARTIN
KATHERINE I. MORLEY*
Affiliation:
Genetic Epidemiology Group, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Queensland, Australia School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia
MICHAEL T. LYNSKEY
Affiliation:
Genetic Epidemiology Group, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Queensland, Australia Department of Psychiatry, Washington University St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA
PAMELA A. F. MADDEN
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA
SUSAN A. TRELOAR
Affiliation:
Genetic Epidemiology Group, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Queensland, Australia
ANDREW C. HEATH
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA
NICHOLAS G. MARTIN
Affiliation:
Genetic Epidemiology Group, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Queensland, Australia
*
*Address for correspondence: Ms Katherine Morley, Genetic Epidemiology Group, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, PO Royal Brisbane Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland 4029, Australia. (Email: kateM@qimr.edu.au)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

We investigated the genetic and environmental contributions to covariation between smoking age-at-onset, cigarette consumption and smoking persistence.

Method

Multivariate biometrical modelling methods were applied to questionnaire data from Australian twins and their siblings (14 472 individuals from 6247 families). The contributions of genetic and environmental factors to covariation between the three traits were estimated, allowing for sex differences in both trait prevalence and the magnitude of genetic and environmental effects.

Results

All traits were moderately heritable in males and females (estimates between 0·40 and 0·62), but there were sex differences in the extent to which additive genetic influences were shared across traits. Twin-specific environmental factors accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in smoking age-at-onset in females (0·19) and males (0·12), but had little influence (<0·08) on other traits. Unique environmental factors were estimated to have a moderate influence on smoking age-at-onset (0·17 for females, 0·19 for males), but a stronger influence on other traits (between 0·39 and 0·49).

Conclusions

These results provide some insight into observed sex differences in smoking behaviour, and suggest that searching for pleiotropic genes may prove fruitful. However, further work on phenotypic definitions of smoking behaviour, particularly persistence, is warranted.

Type
Original Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 37 , Issue 9 , September 2007 , pp. 1357 - 1367
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Breslau, N. & Peterson, E. L. (1996). Smoking cessation in young adults: age at initiation of cigarette smoking and other suspected influences. American Journal of Public Health 86, 214–220.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Everett, S. A., Warren, C. W., Sharp, D., Kann, L., Husten, C. G. & Crossett, L. S. (1999). Initiation of cigarette smoking and subsequent smoking behavior among U.S. high school students. Preventive Medicine 29, 327–333.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ezzati, M. & Lopez, A. D. (2003). Estimates of global mortality attributable to smoking in 2000. Lancet 362, 847–852.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ezzati, M. & Lopez, A. D. (2004). Regional, disease specific patterns of smoking-attributable mortality in 2000. Tobacco Control 13, 388–395.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grayson, D. A. (1989). Twins reared together: minimizing shared environmental effects. Behavior Genetics 19, 593–604.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heath, A. C. (1990). Persist or quit? Testing for a genetic contribution to smoking persistence. Acta Geneticae Medicae et Gemellologiae 39, 447–458.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heath, A. C., Cates, R., Martin, N. G., Meyer, J., Hewitt, J. K., Neale, M. C. & Eaves, L. J. (1993). Genetic contribution to risk of smoking initiation: comparisons across birth cohorts and across cultures. Journal of Substance Abuse 5, 221–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heath, A. C., Madden, P. A. F., Slutske, W. S. & Martin, N. G. (1995). Personality and the inheritance of smoking behavior: a genetic perspective. Behavior Genetics 25, 103–117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heath, A. C. & Martin, N. G. (1993). Genetic models for the natural history of smoking: evidence for a genetic influence on smoking persistence. Addictive Behaviors 18, 19–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heath, A. C. & Martin, N. G. (1994). Genetic influences on alcohol consumption patterns and problem drinking: results from the Australian NH&MRC twin panel follow-up survey. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 708, 72–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heath, A. C., Martin, N. G., Lynskey, M. T., Todorov, A. A. & Madden, P. A. (2002). Estimating two-stage models for genetic influences on alcohol, tobacco or drug use initiation and dependence vulnerability in twin and family data. Twin Research 5, 113–124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hettema, J. M., Corey, L. A. & Kendler, K. S. (1999). A multivariate genetic analysis of the use of tobacco, alcohol, and caffeine in a population-based sample of male and female twins. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 57, 69–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hewitt, J. K. (1989). Of biases and more in the study of twins reared together: a reply to Grayson. Behavior Genetics 19, 593–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hymowitz, N., Cummings, K. M., Hyland, A., Lynn, W. R., Pechacek, T. F. & Hartwell, T. D. (1997). Predictors of smoking cessation in a cohort of adult smokers followed for five years. Tobacco Control 6 (Suppl. 2), S57–S62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, E. O. & Schultz, L. (2005). Forward telescoping bias in reported age of onset: an example from cigarette smoking. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research 14, 119–129.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, T. P. & Mott, J. A. (2001). The reliability of self-reported age of onset of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use. Addiction 96, 1187–1198.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, K. S., Neale, M. C., Sullivan, P., Corey, L. A., Gardner, C. O. & Prescott, C. A. (1999). A population-based twin study in women of smoking initiation and nicotine dependence. Psychological Medicine 29, 299–308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Khuder, S. A., Dayal, H. H. & Mutgi, A. B. (1999). Age at smoking onset and its effect on smoking cessation. Addictive Behaviors 24, 673–677.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kirk, K. M., Birley, A. J., Statham, D. J., Haddon, B., Lake, R. I. E., Andrews, J. G. & Martin, N. G. (2000). Anxiety and depression in twin and sib pairs extremely discordant and concordant for neuroticism: prodromus to a linkage study. Twin Research 3, 299–309.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koeppen-Schomerus, G., Spinath, F. M. & Plomin, R. (2003). Twins and non-twin siblings: different estimates of shared environmental influence in early childhood. Twin Research 6, 97–105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koopmans, J. R., Slutske, W. S., Heath, A. C., Neale, M. C. & Boomsma, D. I. (1999). The genetics of smoking initiation and quantity smoked in Dutch adolescent and young adult twins. Behavior Genetics 29, 383–393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lake, R. I., Eaves, L. J., Maes, H. H., Heath, A. C. & Martin, N. G. (2000). Further evidence against the environmental transmission of individual differences in neuroticism from a collaborative study of 45,850 twins and relatives on two continents. Behavior Genetics 30, 223–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lando, H. A., Thai, D. T., Murray, D. M., Robinson, L. A., Jeffery, R. W., Sherwood, N. E. & Hennrikus, D. J. (1999). Age of initiation, smoking patterns, and risk in a population of working adults. Preventive Medicine 29, 590–598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewinsohn, P. M., Rohde, P. & Brown, R. A. (1999). Level of current and past adolescent cigarette smoking as predictors of future substance use disorders in young adulthood. Addiction 94, 913–921.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, M. D. (2003). The genetics of smoking related behavior: a brief review. American Journal of the Medical Sciences 326, 168–173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Little, R. J. A. & Rubin, D. (1987). Statistical Analysis with Missing Data. Wiley: New York.Google Scholar
Madden, P. A., Heath, A. C., Pedersen, N. L., Kaprio, J., Koskenvuo, M. J. & Martin, N. G. (1999). The genetics of smoking persistence in men and women: a multicultural study. Behavior Genetics 29, 423–431.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Madden, P. A., Pedersen, N. L., Kaprio, J., Koskenvuo, M. J. & Martin, N. G. (2004). The epidemiology and genetics of smoking initiation and persistence: crosscultural comparisons of twin study results. Twin Research 7, 82–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maes, H. H., Sullivan, P. F., Bulik, C. M., Neale, M. C., Prescott, C. A., Eaves, L. J. & Kendler, K. S. (2004). A twin study of genetic and environmental influences on tobacco initiation, regular tobacco use and nicotine dependence. Psychological Medicine 34, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mathers, C. D., Vos, E. T., Stevenson, C. E. & Begg, S. J. (2001). The burden of disease and injury in Australia. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 79, 1076–1084.Google ScholarPubMed
Medland, S. E. (2004). Alternate parameterization for scalar and non-scalar sex-limitation models in Mx. Twin Research 7, 299–305.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neale, M. C., Aggen, S. H., Maes, H. H., Kubarych, T. S. & Schmitt, J. E. (2006 a). Methodological issues in the assessment of substance use phenotypes. Addictive Behaviors 31, 1010–1034.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neale, M. C., Boker, S. M., Xie, G. & Maes, H. H. (2003). Mx: Statistical Modeling (6th edn). Department of Psychiatry, VCU Box 900126: Richmond, VA 23298.Google Scholar
Neale, M. C. & Cardon, L. R. (1992). Methodology for Genetic Studies of Twins and Families. Kluwer Academic: Dordrecht.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neale, M. C., Harvey, E., Maes, H. H., Sullivan, P. F. & Kendler, K. S. (2006 b). Extensions to the modeling of initiation and progression: applications to substance use and abuse. Behavior Genetics 36, 507–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neale, M. C., Roysamb, E. & Jacobson, K. (2006 c). Multivariate genetic analysis of sex limitation and G×E interaction. Twin Research and Human Genetics 9, 481–489.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pergadia, M. L., Heath, A. C., Martin, N. G. & Madden, P. A. (2006). Genetic analyses of DSM-IV nicotine withdrawal in adult twins. Psychological Medicine 36, 963–972.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Posthuma, D., Beem, A. L., de Geus, E. J. C., van Baal, G. C. M., von Hjelmborg, J. B., Iachine, I. & Boomsma, D. I. (2003). Theory and practice in quantitative genetics. Twin Research 6, 361–376.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rhee, S. H., Hewitt, J. K., Young, S. E., Corley, R. P., Crowley, T. J. & Stallings, M. C. (2003). Genetic and environmental influences on substance initiation, use, and problem use in adolescents. Archives of General Psychiatry 60, 1256–1264.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
StataCorp (2005). Stata Statistical Software: Release 8.2. Stata Corporation: College Station, TX.Google Scholar
Sullivan, P. F. & Kendler, K. S. (1999). The genetic epidemiology of smoking. Nicotine and Tobacco Research 1 (Suppl. 2), S51–S57; discussion S69–S70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
True, W. R., Heath, A. C., Scherrer, J. F., Waterman, B., Goldberg, J., Lin, N., Eisen, S. A., Lyons, M. J. & Tsuang, M. T. (1997). Genetic and environmental contributions to smoking. Addiction 92, 1277–1287.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vink, J. M., Willemsen, G. & Boomsma, D. I. (2003). The association of current smoking behavior with the smoking behavior of parents, siblings, friends and spouses. Addiction 98, 923–931.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
White, V., Hill, D., Siahpush, M. & Bobevski, I. (2003). How has the prevalence of cigarette smoking changed among Australian adults? Trends in smoking prevalence between 1980 and 2001. Tobacco Control 12, ii67–ii74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed