Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T08:34:00.529Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Month of Birth by Zygosity in the NAS-NRC Twin Registry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Kenneth S. Kendler  and
C. Dennis Robinette
Kenneth S. Kendler*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Schizophrenia Biologic Research Center, Bronx Veterans Administration Medical Center, andMt. Sinai School of Medicine, Bronx, New York
C. Dennis Robinette
Affiliation:
Medical Follow-up Agency, National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, Washington, DC
*
Department of Psychiatry, Bronx VA Medical Center, 130 West Kingsbridge Road, Bronx, NY 10468, 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.

Previous results regarding a seasonality of twin births have been conflicting. Since the biology of monozygotic (MZ) twinning differs from that of dizygotic (DZ) twinning, it is possible that the seasonality of birth for these two twin types might differ. However, all previous studies examining the seasonality of birth by zygosity has estimated zygosity by Weinberg's method. In this report, the month of birth of all MZ and DZ veteran twins from the United States National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council (NAS-NRC) Twin Registry are compared with that found for an unselected group of veterans. Zygosity in the registry has been individually assigned to all twin pairs by a well-validated method. Compared to unselected veterans, the distribution of births by months did not differ significantly for all the veteran twin pairs or for the MZ and DZ twin pairs considered separately. The distribution of month of birth of the MZ and DZ twin pairs did not differ significantly from one another. These results are not consistent with a significant seasonality of MZ, DZ, or all twin births in the United States.

Keywords

TwinsSeasonality of birthTwin register
Type
Research Article
Information
Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae: twin research , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , April 1983 , pp. 113 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Twin Studies 1983

References

REFERENCES

1.Benirschke, K, Kim, CK (1973): Multiple pregnancy. N Engl J Med 24:1276–1284.Google Scholar
2.Czeizel, A (1974): Unexplainable demographic phenomena of multiple births in Hungary. Acta Genet Med Gemellol (Roma) [Suppl] 22:214–218.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3.Edwards, J (1938): Season and rate of conception. Nature 142:357.Google Scholar
4.Elwood, JM (1978): Matemal and environmental factors affecting twin births in Canadian cities. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 85:351–358.Google Scholar
5.Erhardt, CL, Nelson, FG, Pakter, J (1971): Seasonal patterns of conception in New York City. Am J Public Health 61:2246–2258.Google Scholar
6.Hewitt, D, Milner, J, Csima, A, Pakula, A (1971); On Edward's criterion of seasonality and a non-parametric alternative. Br J Prev Soc Med 25:174–176.Google Scholar
7.Hrubec, Z, Neel, JV (1978): The National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council Twin Registry: Ten years of operation. In Nance, WE (ed): “Twin Research: Part B, Biology and Epidemiology”. New York: Alan R Liss, pp 153–172.Google Scholar
8.Inouye, E, Imaizumi, Y (1981): Analysis of twinning rates in Japan. In Gedda, L, Parisi, P, Nance, WE (eds): “Twin Research 3: Part A, Twin Biology and Multiple Pregnancy”. New York: Alan R Liss, pp 21–33.Google Scholar
9.Jablon, S, Neel, JV, Gershowitz, H, Atkinson, GF (1967): The NAS-NRC Twin Panel: Methods of construction of the panel, zygosity diagnosis and proposed use. Am J Hum Genet 19:133–161.Google Scholar
10.James, WH (1976): Seasonality in twin births. Ann Hum Biol 3:193–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11.James, WH (1980): Seasonality in twin and triplet births. Ann Hum Biol 7:163–175.Google Scholar
12.Kamimura, K (1976): Epidemiology of twin births from a climatic point of view. Br J Prev Soc Med 30:175–179.Google Scholar
13.Nylander, PPS (1978): Causes of high twinning frequencies in Nigeria. In Nance, WE (ed): “Twin Research: Part B, Biology and Epidemiology”. New York: Alan R Liss, pp 35–43.Google Scholar
14.Selvin, S, Janerich, DT (1972): Seasonal variation in twin births. Nature 237:289–290.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15.Timonen, S, Carpen, E (1968): Multiple pregnancies and photoperiodicity. Ann Chir Gynaecol 57:135–138.Google ScholarPubMed
16.Zahalkova, M (1974): Multiple births in southern Moravia. Acta Genet Med Gemello (Roma) 22:210–213.Google Scholar