Genetic and environmental influence on asthma: a population based study of11,688 Danish twin pairs

The aim of this study was to estimate the relative influence of genetic and environmental factors on the aetiology of asthma. The classic twin study design was used to analyse data on self-reported ast hma obtained by a questionnaire mailed to 34,076 individuals, aged 12-41 yr s and originating from the Danish Twin Register. The cumulative incidence of asthma was 6.2% in the pooled sample. The data showed a decreasing cumulative incidence with age for males, but no sex or zygosity difference was observed. Substantially higher concordance rates, o dds ratios and correlations for asthma were estimated in the monozygotic th an in the dizygotic twins. Using biometric modeliing, a model including add itive genetic and nonshared environmental effects provided the best overall fit to the data. According to this model, 73% of the variation in liabilit y to asthma was explained by genetic factors. No sex difference or age-depe ndency in the magnitude of genetic effects was observed. The biometric analysis emphasized a major influence of genetic factors in t he aetiology of asthma, However, a substantial part of the variation in lia bility to asthma is due to the impact of environmental factors specific to the individual, There is no evidence for a substantial impact of genetic do minance or the shared environment.