A Twin Study of Early-Childhood Asthma in Puerto Ricans

Bunyavanich, S and Silberg, JL and Lasky-Su, J and Gillespie, NA and Lange, NE and Canino, G and Celedn, JC (2013) A Twin Study of Early-Childhood Asthma in Puerto Ricans. PLoS ONE, 8 (7).

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Abstract

Background:The relative contributions of genetics and environment to asthma in Hispanics or to asthma in children younger than 3 years are not well understood.Objective:To examine the relative contributions of genetics and environment to early-childhood asthma by performing a longitudinal twin study of asthma in Puerto Rican children ≤3 years old.Methods:678 twin infants from the Puerto Rico Neo-Natal Twin Registry were assessed for asthma at age 1 year, with follow-up data obtained for 624 twins at age 3 years. Zygosity was determined by DNA microsatellite profiling. Structural equation modeling was performed for three phenotypes at ages 1 and 3 years: physician-diagnosed asthma, asthma medication use in the past year, and ≥1 hospitalization for asthma in the past year. Models were additionally adjusted for early-life environmental tobacco smoke exposure, sex, and age.Results:The prevalences of physician-diagnosed asthma, asthma medication use, and hospitalization for asthma were 11.6%, 10.8%, 4.9% at age 1 year, and 34.1%, 40.1%, and 8.5% at 3 years, respectively. Shared environmental effects contributed to the majority of variance in susceptibility to physician-diagnosed asthma and asthma medication use in the first year of life (84%-86%), while genetic effects drove variance in all phenotypes (45%-65%) at age 3 years. Early-life environmental tobacco smoke, sex, and age contributed to variance in susceptibility.Conclusion:Our longitudinal study in Puerto Rican twins demonstrates a changing contribution of shared environmental effects to liability for physician-diagnosed asthma and asthma medication use between ages 1 and 3 years. Early-life environmental tobacco smoke reduction could markedly reduce asthma morbidity in young Puerto Rican children. © 2013 Bunyavanich et al.

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Details

Item Type:	Article
Status:	Published
Creators/Authors:	Creators Email Pitt Username ORCID Bunyavanich, S Silberg, JL Lasky-Su, J Gillespie, NA Lange, NE Canino, G Celedn, JC
Contributors:	Contribution Contributors Name Email Pitt Username ORCID Editor Dewan, Andrew UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
Date:	3 July 2013
Date Type:	Publication
Journal or Publication Title:	PLoS ONE
Volume:	8
Number:	7
DOI or Unique Handle:	10.1371/journal.pone.0068473
Schools and Programs:	School of Public Health > Human Genetics School of Medicine > Pediatrics
Refereed:	Yes
PubMed Central ID:	PMC3700929
PubMed ID:	23844206
Date Deposited:	12 Aug 2013 17:14
Last Modified:	29 Jan 2019 15:55
URI:	http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/19498

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