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Epidemiological Characteristics of Twinning Rates in Taiwan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

C.-J. Chen ,
T.-M. Lin ,
C. Chang  and
Y.-J. Cheng
C.-J. Chen*
Affiliation:
Institute of Public Health, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
T.-M. Lin
Affiliation:
Institute of Public Health, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
C. Chang
Affiliation:
Institute of Public Health, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
Y.-J. Cheng
Affiliation:
Institute of Public Health, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
*
Institute of Public Health, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Jen-Ai Rd. Sec. 1, Taipei, Taiwan

Abstract

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Delivery records of public hospitals and birth certificates of household registration offices were examined to study the epidemiological characteristics of twinning rate from 1955 to 1984 in Taiwan. The MZ twinning rate was consistently higer than the DZ rate during the study period. The DZ rate declined steadily from 2.7 per 1000 in 1955 to 1.3 per 1000 in 1975, and then gradually increased to 3.6 per 1000 in 1984. The MZ rate peaked periodically in 1956, 1966 and 1976, and gradually increased from 3.3 per 1000 in 1978 to 5.9 per 1000 in 1986. Both MZ and DZ rates were higher in urban than in rural areas and they were also higher in northern Taiwan than elsewhere in the island. While both MZ and DZ rates increased with maternal age and parity, the maternal age difference and the parity difference were more striking in DZ than in MZ rates. The international comparison also showed a greater racial difference in maternal age-specific DZ than MZ twinning rates; and the older the maternal age, the greater the international discrepancy in DZ rates.

Keywords

Twinning rateEpidemiologyChinese population
Type
Research Article
Information
Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae: twin research , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , July 1987 , pp. 335 - 342
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Twin Studies 1987

References

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