Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Jan 30:13:9.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2350-13-9.

Genetic analyses of smoking initiation, persistence, quantity, and age-at-onset of regular cigarette use in Brazilian families: the Baependi Heart Study

Andréa R V R Horimoto  1 , Camila M Oliveira, Suely R Giolo, Júlia P Soler, Mariza de Andrade, José E Krieger, Alexandre C Pereira
Affiliations

Genetic analyses of smoking initiation, persistence, quantity, and age-at-onset of regular cigarette use in Brazilian families: the Baependi Heart Study

Andréa R V R Horimoto et al. BMC Med Genet. .

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to estimate the genetic influences on the initiation of cigarette smoking, the persistence, quantity and age-at-onset of regular cigarette use in Brazilian families.

Methods: The data set consisted of 1,694 individuals enrolled in the Baependi Heart Study. The heritability and the heterogeneity in genetic and environmental variance components by gender were estimated from variance components approaches, using the SOLAR (Sequential Oligogenic Linkage Analysis Routines) computer package. The mixed-effects Cox model was used for the genetic analysis of the age-at onset of regular cigarette use.

Results: The heritability estimates were high (> 50%) for smoking initiation and were intermediate, ranging from 23.4 to 31.9%, for smoking persistence and quantity. Significant evidence for heterogeneity in variance components by gender was observed for smoking initiation and age-at-onset of regular cigarette use. Genetic factors play an important role in the interindividual variation of these phenotypes in females, while in males there is a predominant environmental component, which could be explained by greater social influences in the initiation of tobacco use.

Conclusions: Significant heritabilities were observed in smoking phenotypes for both males and females from the Brazilian population. These data add to the literature and are concordant with the notion of significant biological determination in smoking behavior. Samples from the Baependi Heart Study may be valuable for the mapping of genetic loci that modulate this complex biological trait.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. WHO. Report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2008: the MPOWER package. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2008.
    1. Brazil. Vigitel Brazil 2010: protection and risk factors for chronic diseases by telephone inquiry. Brasília: Ministry of Health; 2011. Smoking; p. 152.
    1. Lerman C, Berrettini W. Elucidating the role of genetic factors in smoking behavior and nicotine dependence. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2003;118B(1):48–54. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.b.10003. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rose RJ. In: Handbook of Behavior Genetics. Y -KK, editor. New York: Springer; 2009. Genetics of smoking behavior; pp. 411–431.
    1. Hall W, Madden P, Lynskey M. The genetics of tobacco use: methods, findings and policy implications. Tobacco Control. 2002;11(2):119–124. doi: 10.1136/tc.11.2.119. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources