Genetic and environmental causes of covariation among blood pressure, bodymass and serum lipids during young adulthood: a twin study

Objective To determine the extent to which the correlation of systolic bloo d pressure, diastolic blood pressure, body mass, fasting total cholesterol and fasting triglycerides in young adulthood reflects common genetic or env ironmental influences. Design Cardiovascular risk factors were measured in a community sample of 1 29 monozygotic and 67 dizygotic twin pairs, ages 18-30 years, Methods Multivariate twin structural equation modelling allows estimation o f the extent to which the covariation of two or more variables is attributa ble to common genetic and environmental factors and was used to analyse the correlation among systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, fasting total cholesterol and triglycerides. Results The covariation of risk factors was partially attributable to a sin gle common genetic factor, while the covariation of systolic blood pressure , body mass index and triglycerides was also, in part, attributable to a co mmon non-shared environmental factor. Conclusions Genetic and, to a lesser extent, non-shared environmental facto rs contribute to the covariation of cardiovascular risk factors in young ad ult twins. Nonetheless, it should be noted that these common influences acc ount for a relatively small percentage of the variance in each risk factor compared to genetic and environmental factors that are risk factor-specific . J Hypertens 1999, 17:1677-1685 (C) Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.