Familial Factors in Mortality with Control of Epidemiological Covariables. Swedish Twins Born 1886-1925

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Abstract
A Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was carried out that evaluated age-specific death risk among 21,890 twins born in Sweden during 1886 through 1925 and followed during 1962 through 1980. Cotwin's survival was used as the primary covariable, and auxiliary covariables were smoking, marital status and, among men, police registration for alcohol abuse. In each age, sex and zygosity group, except the oldest DZ males, cotwin's mortality had a significant, independent, positive relationship to the mortality risk of the individual. The auxiliary covariables, except marital status among females, had significant, independent, positive relationships to mortality among the youngest twins of both zygosity groups and in the middle age group of MZ twins. In the oldest age group, the death of MZ cot wins was the only variable significantly related to the individual's mortality. Heritability estimates for the age-specific probability or death risk, developed by different methods for different analysis groups, range between 0.4 and 0.6. They have reasonable internal consistency, are not much affected by the covariates, and are in agreement with other studies that did not control covariates.