Genetic mechanisms in the intergenerational transmission of health.
This paper uses a sample of adoptees to study the genetic mechanisms underlying intergenerational associations in chronic health conditions. I begin by estimating baseline intergenerational models with a sample of approximately 125,000 parent-child pairs, and find that children with a parent who has a specific chronic health condition are at least 100% more likely to have the same condition themselves. To assess the role of genetic mechanisms in generating these strong correlations, I estimate models using a sample of approximately 2400 adoptees, and find that genetic transmission accounts for only 20-30% of the baseline associations. As falsification tests, I repeat this exercise using health measures with externally established levels of genetic determination (height and chicken pox), and the results suggest that comparisons of biological and adopted children are a valid method of isolating genetic effects in this sample. Finally, to corroborate these adoptee-based estimates, I examine health correlations among monozygotic twins, which provide an upper bound estimate of genetic influences, and find a similarly modest role for genetic transmission. I conclude that intergenerational health transmission is an important hindrance to overall socioeconomic mobility, but that the majority of transmission occurs through environmental factors or gene-environment interactions, leaving scope for interventions to effectively mitigate health persistence.
['Thompson|Owen|O|']
D000293:Adolescent D000300:Adoption D001249:Asthma D002648:Child D002675:Child, Preschool D002908:Chronic Disease D003920:Diabetes Mellitus D004777:Environment D005192:Family Health D005260:Female D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease D020773:Headache Disorders D006306:Health Surveys D006801:Humans D007223:Infant D007231:Infant, Newborn D008297:Male D015995:Prevalence D012044:Regression Analysis D006255:Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal D012923:Social Class D014430:Twins, Monozygotic D014481:United States
Genetics Adoptees Health transmission