出版社：Norsk forening for epidemiologi - The Norwegian Epidemiological Association
摘要：Linking national registries with twin data represents an opportunity to produce epidemiological research ofhigh quality. National registries contain information on a broad array of variables, some of which cannot bemeasured reliably in regular health surveys. By taking kinship into consideration, twin studies have thebenefit of being able to identify confounding stemming from genetic or shared environmental sources. Inthis paper, we use examples from our own interview and questionnaire-based twin studies from the NorwegianTwin Registry (NTR) on mental disorders, alcohol use and socioeconomic status linked to registrydata on medical benefits to demonstrate the value. In the first example, we examined to what extent geneticand environmental factors contributed to sick leave and disability pension and the association between thesetwo types of benefits. In the second example, we explored the genetic and environmental relationshipbetween personality disorders and sick leave. In the third example, a co-twin control design was applied toexplore whether there is a true protective relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and health.The fourth example shows to what degree anxiety and depression are associated with later sick leave grantedfor not only mental disorders, but also somatic disorders, adjusted for confounding by genetic and sharedenvironmental factors. In the fifth example, we address the socioeconomic gradient in sick leave, adjustingfor non-observed confounders associated with the family in a co-twin control design. Our examples illustratesome of the potentials obtainable by linking national registries with twin data. The efforts that have beenmade to create the NTR in Norway and the International Network of Twin Studies (INTR) internationallymake these types of linkage studies easier to conduct and available to more researchers. As there are stillmany areas to explore, we encourage epidemiological researchers to make use of this possibility.
其他摘要：Linking national registries with twin data represents an opportunity to produce epidemiological research of high quality. National registries contain information on a broad array of variables, some of which cannot be measured reliably in regular health surveys. By taking kinship into consideration, twin studies have the benefit of being able to identify confounding stemming from genetic or shared environmental sources. In this paper, we use examples from our own interview and questionnaire-based twin studies from the Norwegian Twin Registry (NTR) on mental disorders, alcohol use and socioeconomic status linked to registry data on medical benefits to demonstrate the value. In the first example, we examined to what extent genetic and environmental factors contributed to sick leave and disability pension and the association between these two types of benefits. In the second example, we explored the genetic and environmental relationship between personality disorders and sick leave. In the third example, a co-twin control design was applied to explore whether there is a true protective relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and health. The fourth example shows to what degree anxiety and depression are associated with later sick leave granted for not only mental disorders, but also somatic disorders, adjusted for confounding by genetic and shared environmental factors. In the fifth example, we address the socioeconomic gradient in sick leave, adjusting for non-observed confounders associated with the family in a co-twin control design. Our examples illustrate some of the potentials obtainable by linking national registries with twin data. The efforts that have been made to create the NTR in Norway and the International Network of Twin Studies (INTR) internationally make these types of linkage studies easier to conduct and available to more researchers. As there are still many areas to explore, we encourage epidemiological researchers to make use of this possibility.
