Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T01:07:04.646Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Persist or Quit? Testing for a Genetic Contribution to Smoking Persistence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

A.C. Heath*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
*
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We consider three alternative parametric models to describe genetic and environmental influences on smoking initiation and smoking persistence. Under the single liability dimension model, the same genetic and environmental influences which determine smoking initiation also influence smoking persistence. Under the independent liability dimensions model, independent initiation and persistence dimensions determine onset of smoking, and persistence in those who become smokers. The combined model also postulates separate initiation and persistence dimensions, but allows for the possibility that some smokers are so low on liability to smoke on the initiation dimension that they become ex-smokers for this reason. Reanalyses of London twin data published by Eaves and Eysenck support the single liability dimension model. We discuss the difficulty of reconciling this finding with the hypothesis that nicotine dependence is a major determinant of smoking persistence, but caution that sample sizes in the London twin study were small.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Twin Studies 1990

References

REFERENCES

1. Eaves, LJ, Eysenck, HJ (1980): New approaches to the analysis of twin data and their application to smoking behavior. In Eysenck, HJ (ed): The Causes and Effects of Smoking. London: Maurice Temple Smith, pp 158235.Google Scholar
2. Eaves, LJ, Eysenck, HJ, Martin, NG (1989): Genes, Culture and Personality: An Empirical Approach. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
3. Eaves, LJ, Last, K, Young, PA, Martin, NG 1978: Model-fitting approaches to the analysis of human behavior. Heredity 41:249320.Google Scholar
4. Eysenck, HJ (1973): Personality and the maintenance of the smoking habit. In Dunn, WL (ed): Smoking Behavior: Motives and Incentives. Washington, DC: VH Winston and Sons, pp 113146.Google Scholar
5. Hannah, MC, Hopper, JL, Mathews, JD 1983: Twin concordance for a binary trait. I: Statistical models illustrated with data on drinking status. Acta Genet Med Gemellol 32:127138.Google Scholar
6. Hannah, MC, Hopper, JL, Mathews, JD 1984: Twin concordance for a binary trait. II: Nested analysis of ever-smoking and ex-smoking traits and umested analysis of a committed-smoking trait. Am J Hum Genet 37:153165.Google Scholar
7. Heath, AC, Martin, NG 1988: Teenage alcohol use in the Australian twin register: Genetic and social determinants of starting to drink. Alcoholism Clin Exp Res 12:735741.Google Scholar
8. Heath, AC, Meyer, J, Eaves, LJ, Martin, NG (1991): The inheritance of alcohol consumption patterns in a general population twin sample: I. Multidimensional scaling of quantity/frequency data. J Stud Alc (in press).Google Scholar
9. Heath, AC, Meyer, J, Jardine, R, Martin, NG (1991): The inheritance of alcohol consumption patterns in a general population twin sample: II. Determinants of consumption frequency and quantity consumed. J Stud Alc (in press).Google Scholar
10. Heath, AC, Meyer, J, Martin, NG (1991): The inheritance of alcohol consumption patterns in the Australian Twin Survey, 1981. In: Genetics and Biology of Alcoholism, Banbury Report 33 (in press).Google Scholar
11. Jardine, R, Martin, NG 1984: Causes of variation in drinking habits in a large twin sample. Acta Genet Med Gemellol 33:435450.Google Scholar
12. Kaprio, J, Koskenvuo, M, Sarna, S (1981): Cigarette smoking, use of alcohol, and leisure-activity among same-sexed adult twins. In Gedda, L, Parisi, P, Nance, WE (eds): Twin Research 3: Part C. New York: Alan R Liss, pp 3746.Google Scholar
13. Kaprio, J, Koskenvuo, MD, Langinvainio, H, Romanov, K, Sarna, S, Rose, RJ 1987: Genetic influences on use and abuse of alcohol: A study of 5,638 adult Finnish brothers. Alcoholism Clin Exp Res 11:349356.Google Scholar
14. Meyer, JM, Heath, AC, Martin, NG, Eaves, LJ (1191): Genetic and environmental influences on onset of the smoking habit and quantity smoked. (In review).Google Scholar
15. Olsson, H (1979): Maximum-likelihood estimation of the polychoric coefficient, Psychometrika 44:443460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16. Tallis, GM 1962: The maximum-likelihood estimation of correlation from contingency tables. Biometrics 18:342353.Google Scholar
17. US Department of Health and Human Services (1988): The Health Consequences of Smoking: Nicotine Addiction. A Report of the Surgeon General, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control. DHHS Publication No. (CDC) 88-8406.Google Scholar