The prevalence of the feeling of cold hands and feet (FCHF) is high in the
general population but the etiology of FCHF is largely unknown. The aim of the
present study was to explore whether the FCHF is heritable. Eight hundred and
ninety-four pairs of twins completed a question about FCHF. Tetrachoric
correlations for FCHF were .58, .29, .67, .52, and .04 for monozygotic male,
dizygotic male, monozygotic female, and dizygotic female twins, respectively.
Model-fitting analyses suggested that in the best fitting model, additive
genetic and nonshared environmental variance including measurement error were
64% (95% CI: 55%-72%) and 36% (28%-45%), respectively. Sex differences in
genetic and environmental influences were not significant.