BLACK ELDERLY TWIN STUDY

黑人老年双胞胎研究(BITS)的目的是估计 遗传性和非遗传性对身体机能的贡献 65岁及以上的黑人双胞胎人口。我们建议 确定两个人口的全国队列：2985对黑人双胞胎；加上 来自联邦医疗保险登记文件的白色双胞胎对照样本 卫生保健筹资管理局(HCFA)。这两个样本都将包括 男对男和女对女。 将对所有双胞胎夫妇进行基线电话面试。 这次访谈将包括以下身体机能的衡量标准： 卡茨日常生活活动、劳顿和布罗迪器乐活动 日常生活、Rosow和Breslau Gross Mobility功能，以及Nagi 物理性能的电池。采访还将衡量 以下可能影响身体功能的因素：特定的慢性 疾病，认知障碍，抑郁症，社交功能， 社会经济地位和健康习惯(即肥胖、烟酒 使用、睡眠)。此外，所有患者的12个月健康史 住院和门诊就诊将追溯 通过与医疗保险计算机文件的记录链接进行重建。 有了这些数据，关于物理学的三个主要假设 可以测试老年黑人的功能：1)加性遗传效应和 共享的共同环境影响物理变量的表型变异 由每个物理功能仪器测量的功能，2) 对于每种仪器，单独的项目测量不同的维度 受遗传和共有的共同影响的身体功能 环境，3)特定协变量的影响(如慢性 疾病、认知障碍和社会功能)通过 相加遗传，共同的环境或两者共同作用。 BUTS项目的优势在于它旨在增强 通过确定年龄较大黑人的身体功能 遗传信息样本中的健康状况测量：潜在的 遗传对身体机能的贡献从未被研究过 一大批老年美国黑人。

The purpose of the Black Elderly Twin Study (BETS) is to estimate the genetic and nongenetic contributions to physical functioning in a population of black twin pairs aged 65 years and older. We propose to identify a national cohort of two populations: 2,985 black twin pairs; plus a control sample of white twin pairs from the Medicare enrollment files of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). Both samples will include male-male and female-female pairs. A baseline telephone interview will be administered to all twin pairs. This interview will include the following measures of physical functioning: Katz Activities of Daily Living, Lawton and Brody Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, Rosow and Breslau Gross Mobility Functions, and Nagi Battery of Physical Performance. The interview will also measure the following factors that may influence physical functioning: specific chronic diseases, cognitive impairment, depression, social functioning, socio-economic status, and health habits (i.e. obesity, tobacco and alcohol use, sleep). In addition, a 12 month health history of all hospitalizations and out-patient visits will be retrospectively reconstructed by record linkage with Medicare computer files. With these data, three primary hypotheses concerning the physical functioning of older blacks can be tested: 1) Additive genetic effects and shared common environment influence the phenotypic variability in physical functioning as measured by each of the physical functioning instruments, 2) For each instrument, individual items measure different dimensions of physical functioning which are influenced by heredity and shared common environment, 3) The effect of specific covariates (such as chronic diseases, cognitive impairment and social function) are mediated through additive genetics, shared common environment or both acting in concert. The strength of the BETS project lies in that it is designed to enhance understanding of physical functioning in older blacks by ascertaining health status measures in a genetically informative sample: The potential contribution of heredity to physical functioning has never been studied in a large population of older U.S. blacks.