Salces I, Rebato E, Susanne C, Hauspie RC, Saha R, Dasgupta P. Heritability variations of morphometric traits in West Bengal (India) children aged 4-19 years: a mixed-longitudinal growth study.
Ann Hum Biol 2007;
34:226-39. [PMID:
17558593 DOI:
10.1080/03014460601144128]
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Abstract
BACKGROUND
Longitudinal and semi-longitudinal growth studies on siblings reflecting heritability changes during growth are very scarce. Moreover, studies of variables other than height, weight and BMI are virtually non-existent.
AIM
The study compared changes in the heritability of six body lengths, four body breadths, and three indices between ages 4 and 19 years on the basis of a mixed-longitudinal sample of siblings, and examined whether heritability estimates change during the growth period. The data consisted of 238 brothers and 214 sisters from 134 middle-class nuclear families living in Kolkata (India). The analysis of sibling correlation was performed by maximum likelihood. The age-related patterns of heritabilities of the various traits were described by a cubic spline.
RESULTS
The heritability was very high and significant in most traits, and at all considered ages. Mean heritability in the 10 morphometric traits was 69.3%, which was higher than the heritability values for the three indices.
CONCLUSIONS
These results confirmed the existence of age-related trends in heritability of the considered morphometric traits. The sharp decline of the heritabilities at adolescence in most of the morphometric traits, and the acromio-iliac index in particular, may be due to the large inter-individual variation in the age at which the adolescent growth spurt is reached in both sexes.
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