Linda Juel Ahrenfeldt1, Lisbeth Aagaard Larsen2, Rune Lindahl-Jacobsen3, Axel Skytthe2, Jacob V B Hjelmborg2, Sören Möller2, Kaare Christensen4. 1. Department of Public Health, The Danish Twin Registry, Unit of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Biodemography, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C, Denmark; Department of Public Health, Max-Planck Odense Center on the Biodemography of Aging, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C, Denmark. Electronic address: lahrenfeldt@health.sdu.dk. 2. Department of Public Health, The Danish Twin Registry, Unit of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Biodemography, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C, Denmark. 3. Department of Public Health, The Danish Twin Registry, Unit of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Biodemography, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C, Denmark; Department of Public Health, Max-Planck Odense Center on the Biodemography of Aging, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C, Denmark. 4. Department of Public Health, The Danish Twin Registry, Unit of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Biodemography, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C, Denmark; Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Odense University Hospital, Odense C, Denmark; Department of Clinical Genetics, Odense University Hospital, Odense C, Denmark.
Abstract
PURPOSE: To investigate the twin testosterone transfer (TTT) hypothesis by comparing early-life mortality risks of opposite-sex (OS) and same-sex (SS) twins during the first 15 years of life. METHODS: We performed a population-based cohort study to compare mortality in OS and SS twins. We included 68,629 live-born Danish twins from 1973 to 2009 identified through the Danish Twin Registry and performed piecewise stratified Cox regression and log-binomial regression. RESULTS: Among 1933 deaths, we found significantly higher mortality for twin boys than for twin girls. For both sexes, OS twins had lower mortality than SS twins; the difference persisted for the first year of life for boys and for the first week of life for girls. CONCLUSIONS: Although the mortality risk for OS boys was in the expected direction according to the TTT hypothesis, the results for OS girls pointed in the opposite direction, providing no clear evidence for the TTT hypothesis.
PURPOSE: To investigate the twin testosterone transfer (TTT) hypothesis by comparing early-life mortality risks of opposite-sex (OS) and same-sex (SS) twins during the first 15 years of life. METHODS: We performed a population-based cohort study to compare mortality in OS and SS twins. We included 68,629 live-born Danish twins from 1973 to 2009 identified through the Danish Twin Registry and performed piecewise stratified Cox regression and log-binomial regression. RESULTS: Among 1933 deaths, we found significantly higher mortality for twin boys than for twin girls. For both sexes, OS twins had lower mortality than SS twins; the difference persisted for the first year of life for boys and for the first week of life for girls. CONCLUSIONS: Although the mortality risk for OSboys was in the expected direction according to the TTT hypothesis, the results for OSgirls pointed in the opposite direction, providing no clear evidence for the TTT hypothesis.
Authors: Jacob Hjelmborg; Pia Larsen; Jaakko Kaprio; Matt McGue; Thomas Scheike; Philip Hougaard; Kaare Christensen Journal: Genes (Basel) Date: 2019-02-20 Impact factor: 4.096