Heritability of blood pressure in 7‐ to 12‐year‐old Chinese twins, with special reference to body size effects

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Abstract
Systolic and diastolic blood pressures and body‐size indices such as body height, body weight, sitting height, chest circumference, skinfold thickness, and body mass index (BMI) were assessed in 110 pairs of like‐sex Chinese twins (75 monozygotic and 35 dizygotic) aged 7–12 years. Significant correlations of blood pressure with body‐size indices were found. Prior to adjusting for body‐size effects, three twin methods yielded low heritability estimates for both systolic (0.32–0.41) and diastolic (0.32–0.51) pressures. Adjusting systolic pressure for body height and BMI via multiple regression nearly halved heritability estimates, but adjusting diastolic pressure for body height and skinfold thickness only changed the estimates slightly.