Association between Alcohol Use and Smoking in Adult Japanese : A Bivariate Genetic Analysis

Abstract

A genetic analysis was conducted in order to evaluate to what extent alcohol use and smoking are influenced by genetic or environmental factors. The subjects were adult 149 monozygotic twin pairs and 87 parent-offspring pairs who answered a mailed questionnaire, including requests for information on alcohol use and smoking. Covariance structure analysis was performed using program packages PRELIS2 and LISREL8. The results demonstrated that (1) significant heritability were obtained for both alcohol use (73% for male and 64% for female) and smoking (58% for male and 33% for female), (2) dominance genetic effects were observed for male alcohol use and common (within family) environmental effects were observed for female smoking, (3) a higher genetic effects were observed for alcohol use than for smoking in both sexes, (4) a higher environmental effects were observed for female than for male in both behaviors, (5) the co-occurrence of both behaviors were in part influenced by common genetic/environmental factors, with the additive genetic correlations of. 54 for males and. 50 for females, and random environmental correlations of. 34 for males and. 33 for females. These results show that lifestyles, such as alcohol use and smoking, are under substantial genetic control. It is concluded that not only environmental factors, but genetic factors should be considered in the proper management of alcohol use and smoking.