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Twins Born Following Fertility Treatment: Implications for Quantitative Genetic Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2012

Adam Goody
Affiliation:
The School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
Frances Rice*
Affiliation:
The School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom; The Department of Psychological Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom. [email protected]
Jacky Boivin
Affiliation:
The School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
Gordon T. Harold
Affiliation:
The School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
Dale F. Hay
Affiliation:
The School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
Anita Thapar
Affiliation:
The Department of Psychological Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
*
*Address for correspondence: Frances Rice, Department of Psychological Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XN, UK.

Abstract

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The rate of multiple births is substantially elevated in women who have had assisted reproduction treatment (ART; ˜26%) compared to the general population (˜1%), and these offspring are usually included in twin studies. Several studies have attempted to identify possible consequences of undergoing ART on the subsequent offspring. However, most studies have only included singleton births. We first examined whether twins born by ART differed from other twins on measures of childhood psychopathology, putative risk factors and correlates, and secondly tested for differences in the degree of twin similarity for available outcome measures. From a population-based twin sample, 101 families with dizygotic (DZ) twins conceived via ART were identified and compared with 1073 naturally conceived (NC) control DZ twin pairs. Analyses performed were (1) univariate and multivariate comparisons of between-group mean differences; and (2) comparison of twin 1–twin 2 correlations between the groups. The groups differed significantly on demographic factors (parental age, family size and social class) and pregnancy variables (smoking during pregnancy and birthweight) but did not differ on family conflict scores or in the frequency of obstetric complications. Family cohesion was higher in the ART group but this was accounted for by demographic factors. For child psychopathology there was a difference between the groups only for teacher-rated ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Differences were also found between groups for twin correlations. The differences found between ART and NC twins on group means and twin correlations suggest that researchers should be aware that including ART twins may influence results from twin studies.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005