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EARLY CHILHDOOD HEALTH EXPERIENCE & ADULT PHENOTYPE IN TWINS
by
Amie Eunah Hwang
_____________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(EPIDEMIOLOGY)
May 2012
Copyright 2012 Amie Eunah Hwang
Object Description
| Title | Early childhood health experience & adult phenotype in twins |
| Author | Hwang, Amie Eunah |
| Author email | amiehwan@usc.edu |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Epidemiology |
| School | Keck School of Medicine |
| Date defended/completed | 2012-02-10 |
| Date submitted | 2012-04-11 |
| Date approved | 2012-04-11 |
| Restricted until | 2012-04-11 |
| Date published | 2012-04-11 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Cozen, Wendy |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Mack, Thomas M. Bernstein, Leslie Gauderman, William James Crimmins, Eileen M. |
| Abstract | Childhood health experience may have a long term effects lasting into adulthood. Childhood infections have an etiologic role in the development of cancers and chronic diseases. For example, Epstein Barr virus (EBV) and Helicobactor pylori are well established causes of EBV-positive Hodgkin’s lymphoma and stomach cancer, respectively. Height has also been commonly associated with many cancers and other chronic conditions. It is usually interpreted as a proxy for childhood socioeconomic status or nutrition. However the effect of height on diseases has been consistently reported independent of the effects of childhood socioeconomic status and diet, suggesting height may represent other underlying biological mechanisms. Studies examining childhood experiences are challenging due to unreliable recall by study participants and the unavailability and incomplete of medical records. ❧ Twins offer unique advantages for studying childhood health experience because they can provide relative differences in exposure, they can validate each other’s answers, and they are either partially or entirely matched on genome. This dissertation consists of several projects examining childhood health in which twins identified from the California Twin Program were the participants. For two of the studies, both young adult twins and their mothers were interviewed, providing consistent and reliable information pertaining to the twins’ childhood illness history. In a descriptive study, comparing responses from mothers and twins about childhood exposures, I found all subjects were able to provide the most information on differences between the twins when questions were framed in a comparative fashion with ordinal answers. Although the number of pairs reporting differences in exposures was small, their answers were generally consistent with their mothers. ❧ Infectious mononucleosis, a disease caused by a delayed infection of EBV, is associated with EBV positive Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple sclerosis. I conducted a heritability study in monozygotic and dizygotic twins and found evidence suggesting a genetic component in the development of infectious mononucleosis. ❧ The effect of childhood illnesses on adult height was assessed in healthy identical twins differing in height as adults, to control for genetic factors, childhood socioeconomic status and parental exposures. The twin who reported more frequent episodes of febrile illnesses was twice as likely to become the shorter twin as an adult. This effect was consistent after adjusting for birth weight and birth height and was strongest and most significant during toddler years (1-5 years of age). ❧ In conclusion, these studies suggest that childhood illnesses are a determinant of adult height. In the future, these findings can be applied to elucidate the relationship between childhood infections and adult diseases. |
| Keyword | childhood; infectious disease; infectious mononucleosis; concordance; height; growth; twin; long term recall; parental report; pediatric |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Hwang, Amie Eunah |
| Physical access | The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given. |
| Repository name | University of Southern California Digital Library |
| Repository address | USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 7002, 106 University Village, Los Angeles, California 90089-7002, USA |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume1/etd-HwangAmieE-594.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | EARLY CHILHDOOD HEALTH EXPERIENCE & ADULT PHENOTYPE IN TWINS by Amie Eunah Hwang _____________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (EPIDEMIOLOGY) May 2012 Copyright 2012 Amie Eunah Hwang |
