Andrew C Heath
Biographic Data
| ID | 169454 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Andrew C Heath |
| GIVEN NAMES | Andrew C |
| FAMILY NAME | Heath |
| SIGNATURE | HEATH A C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Washington University in St. Louis |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9414-6857 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 158 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1986 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Identifying Sociodemographic Community Variables and High School Characteristics Predictive of Subsequent College Alcohol Consumption: Integrating Self-Report, Census, and School Administrative Data
BACKGROUND: Collegiate alcohol consumption is multi-determined by both precollege (e.g., institutional and community background, academic characteristics, precollege drinking) and college variables. However, precollege variables are rarely investigated. Self-reports of collegiate alcohol use were predicted by novel sources of data from university, census, and public administrative records. METHOD: 3,720 first-time, college freshmen at a large, pu…
Childhood Experiences of Corporal Punishment and Associated Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration and Victimization in Adulthood: Results from a Longitudinal Twin Study
Purpose Corporal punishment has been widely accepted to have adverse effects on children in childhood, however, less is known about its distal effects. The current study uses data from a longitudinal Australian twin study to estimate the association between experiencing corporal punishment in childhood and involvement in adult physical intimate partner violence (PIPV) as a victim or perpetrator. Methods The sample (N = 1532) consisted of 644 twin…
Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with DNA methylation in early adolescence: A sibling comparison design
Maternal smoking during pregnancy (MSDP) may impact offspring biological (e.g., deoxyribonucleic acid methylation [DNAm]) and behavioral (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder hyperactive/impulsive [ADHD-HI] symptoms) development. There has been consistency in findings of differential methylation in global DNAm, and the specific genes AHRR, CYP1A1, CNTNAP2, MYO1G, and GFI1 in relation to MSDP. The current study aims to (a) replicate the …
Polygenic prediction of educational attainment within and between families from genome-wide association analyses in 3 million individuals
We conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of educational attainment (EA) in a sample of ~3 million individuals and identify 3,952 approximately uncorrelated genome-wide-significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A genome-wide polygenic predictor, or polygenic index (PGI), explains 12–16% of EA variance and contributes to risk prediction for ten diseases. Direct effects (i.e., controlling for parental PGIs) explain roughly half th…
The Effect of Smoking during Pregnancy on Severity and Directionality of Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms: A Genetically Informed Approach
The objective was to examine the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy (SDP) and (I) severity and (II) directionality of externalizing and internalizing symptoms in a sample of sibling pairs while rigorously controlling for familial confounds. The Missouri Mothers and Their Children Study is a family study (N = 173 families) with sibling pairs (aged 7 to 16 years) who are discordant for exposure to SDP. This sibling comparison stu…
New alcohol-related genes suggest shared genetic mechanisms with neuropsychiatric disorders
Excessive alcohol consumption is one of the main causes of death and disability worldwide. Alcohol consumption is a heritable complex trait. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of gram/day (g/d) alcohol consumption in UK-Biobank, AlcGen and CHARGE+ consortia accumulating 480,842 people of European descent to decipher the genetic architecture of alcohol intake. We identified 46 novel, common loci, and investigate…
Genome-wide association analyses identify 44 risk variants and refine the genetic architecture of major depression
The Impact of Traumatic Experiences on Risky Sexual Behaviors in Black and White Young Adult Women
Inhibitory control in siblings discordant for exposure to maternal smoking during pregnancy
Maternal smoking during pregnancy (SDP) has been linked to poorer offspring executive function across development, but SDP does not occur independent of other familial risk factors. As such, poor and inconsistent control for potential confounds, notably shared familial (i.e., genetic and environmental) confounds, preclude concluding causal effects of SDP on child outcomes. We examined the within-family association between SDP and one component of…
Genetic evidence of assortative mating in humans
Genetic variants associated with subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism identified through genome-wide analyses
Genome-wide association study identifies 74 loci associated with educational attainment
Genetic studies of body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology
GWAS of 126,559 Individuals Identifies Genetic Variants Associated with Educational Attainment
Genetic College Many genomic elements in humans are associated with behavior, including educational attainment. In a genome-wide association study including more than 100,000 samples, Rietveld et al. (p. 1467 , published online 30 May; see the Perspective by Flint and Munafò ) looked for genes related to educational attainment in Caucasians. Small genetic effects at three loci appeared to impact educational attainment.
Human gut microbiome viewed across age and geography
Gut microbial communities represent one source of human genetic and metabolic diversity. To examine how gut microbiomes differ among human populations, here we characterize bacterial species in fecal samples from 531 individuals, plus the gene content of 110 of them. The cohort encompassed healthy children and adults from the Amazonas of Venezuela, rural Malawi and US metropolitan areas and included mono- and dizygotic twins. Shared features of t…
Population Composition, Public Policy, and the Genetics of Smoking
In this article, we explore the effect of public policy on the extent to which genes influence smoking desistance. Using a sample of adult twins (nmz = 363, ndz = 233) from a large population registry, we estimate Cox proportional hazards models that describe similarity in the timing of smoking desistance among adult twin pairs. We show that identical twin pairs are significantly more likely to quit smoking within a similar time frame compared wi…
A Genome-Wide Analysis of Liberal and Conservative Political Attitudes
The assumption that the transmission of social behaviors and political preferences is purely cultural has been challenged repeatedly over the last 40 years by the combined evidence of large studies of adult twins and their relatives, adoption studies, and twins reared apart. Variance components and path modeling analyses using data from extended families quantified the overall genetic influence on political attitudes, but few studies have attempt…
Common SNPs explain a large proportion of the heritability for human height
The Genetics of Voting: An Australian Twin Study
A Genetically Informed Study of the Intergenerational Transmission of Marital Instability
Environmental or genetic influences, or both could account for the increased risk of divorce among the offspring of separated parents. Previous studies have used covariates to statistically control for confounds, but the present research is the first genetically informed study of the topic. The investigation used the Children of Twins Design with twins, their spouses, and their young adult offspring (n = 2,310) from the Australian Twin Registry t…
Mental Representations of Attachment in Identical Female Twins with and without Conduct Problems
A genetically informed study of the processes underlying the association between parental marital instability and offspring adjustment
Parental divorce is associated with problematic offspring adjustment, but the relation may be due to shared genetic or environmental factors. One way to test for these confounds is to study offspring of twins discordant for divorce. The current analyses used this design to separate the mechanisms responsible for the association between parental divorce, experienced either before or after the age of 16, and offspring well-being. The results were c…
Heritability of SF-36 Among Middle-Age, Middle-Class, Male???Male Twins
OBJECTIVE: We sought to examine the relative importance of genetic and environmental factors for the MOS SF-36; a widely used, valid, and reliable measure of health-related quality of life and to discuss incorporating genetic influences into health services research. DATA SOURCES: Data are from a nationally distributed, nonclinical cohort of 2928 middle age, middle-class, male-male twin members of the Vietnam Era Twin Registry. STUDY DESIGN: This…
The Consistency of Recalled Age at First Sexual Intercourse
It is widely believed that people can remember the age at which they first had sexual intercourse. Questions about age at onset are routinely asked in population sexual behaviour surveys and in clinical history-taking. However, there are limited test–retest data, especially with regard to individual differences in unreliable recall. In this study, telephone interviews and follow-ups an average of 15 months later were conducted with 570 non-virgin…
Participation bias in a sexuality survey: Psychological and behavioural characteristics of responders and non-responders
BACKGROUND: Few studies of sexual attitudes and behaviour have quantified the direction and magnitude of participation bias, primarily because information on non-responders is difficult to obtain in cross-sectional surveys. METHOD: Australian adult twins (n = 9112) aged 17-52 years enrolled in a national, longitudinal research register were asked to participate in a postal survey concerning their sexual behaviour and attitudes. Individual consent…
A Genome-Wide Analysis of Liberal and Conservative Political Attitudes
The assumption that the transmission of social behaviors and political preferences is purely cultural has been challenged repeatedly over the last 40 years by the combined evidence of large studies of adult twins and their relatives, adoption studies, and twins reared apart. Variance components and path modeling analyses using data from extended families quantified the overall genetic influence on political attitudes, but few studies have attempt…
A genetically informed study of the processes underlying the association between parental marital instability and offspring adjustment
Parental divorce is associated with problematic offspring adjustment, but the relation may be due to shared genetic or environmental factors. One way to test for these confounds is to study offspring of twins discordant for divorce. The current analyses used this design to separate the mechanisms responsible for the association between parental divorce, experienced either before or after the age of 16, and offspring well-being. The results were c…
Genetic evidence of assortative mating in humans
Population Composition, Public Policy, and the Genetics of Smoking
In this article, we explore the effect of public policy on the extent to which genes influence smoking desistance. Using a sample of adult twins (nmz = 363, ndz = 233) from a large population registry, we estimate Cox proportional hazards models that describe similarity in the timing of smoking desistance among adult twin pairs. We show that identical twin pairs are significantly more likely to quit smoking within a similar time frame compared wi…
Social support, depressed mood, and adjustment to stress: A genetic epidemiologic investigation
A survey of 821 same-sex female twin pairs from a population-based registry assessed 8 dimensions of social support and social integration. Twin analyses documented significant common environmental influences on 5 of these 8 measures and significant genetic influences on 5 of the 8. A decomposition of the multiplicative association between support and a measure of stressful life experiences in predicting depressed mood--an association typically i…
A Genetically Informed Study of the Intergenerational Transmission of Marital Instability
Environmental or genetic influences, or both could account for the increased risk of divorce among the offspring of separated parents. Previous studies have used covariates to statistically control for confounds, but the present research is the first genetically informed study of the topic. The investigation used the Children of Twins Design with twins, their spouses, and their young adult offspring (n = 2,310) from the Australian Twin Registry t…
Testing a model for the genetic structure of personality: A comparison of the personality systems of Cloninger and Eysenck
Genetic analysis of data from 2.680 adult .~iantwin pailS demonstrated signiiic:mt genetic conuibutions to variation in scores on the Harm Avoidance.:-fovelty Seelcing, and Reward Dependence SCLIes of Ooningcr's Tridimensional Personality Questiol1Dllire (TPQ).accounting for between 54% and 61 '!& of the stable variation in tllese traits.Multivariate genetic triangular decom~ sition models were fitted to determine the extent to wbidl the TPQ asse…
Evidence for genetic influences on personality from self-reports and informant ratings
Self-report data on Extraversion (E) and Neuroticism (N), together with ratings by the co-twin, were obtained from a sample of 826 adult female twin pairs ascertained through a population-based twin register. Data were analyzed using a model that allowed for the contributions to personality ratings of the rater's personality (rater bias) as well as of the personality of the person being rated. For E, but not for N, significant rater bias was foun…
Genetic and environmental structure of the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire: Three or four temperament dimensions
Previous phenotypic factor analyses suggest that C. R. Cloninger's Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ; 1987c) assesses 4 rather than 3 temperament dimensions. The purpose of this study was to determine whether Cloninger's revised 4-factor model showed incremental validity over his original model and to investigate the convergent and discriminant validity of Cloninger's dimensions in comparison to the personality dimensions proposed by …
Psychoticism as a dimension of personality: A multivariate genetic test of Eysenck and Eysenck's psychoticism construct
In this study, we applied multivariate genetic analysis, a generalization of factor analysis and behavior genetic analysis, to responses to items of the Psychoticism scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire by 2,903 adult same-sex Australian twin pairs. Item loadings on genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental common and specific factors were estimated. The genetic factor structure differed considerably from the environmen…
Transmission of social attitudes.
Data gathered in Australia and England on the social attitudes of spouses and twins are largely consistent with a genetic model for family resemblance in social attitudes. There is substantial assortative mating and little evidence of vertical cultural inheritance.
Psychoticism as a dimension of personality: A multivariate genetic test of Eysenck and Eysenck's psychoticism construct
In this study, we applied multivariate genetic analysis, a generalization of factor analysis and behavior genetic analysis, to responses to items of the Psychoticism scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire by 2,903 adult same-sex Australian twin pairs. Item loadings on genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental common and specific factors were estimated. The genetic factor structure differed considerably from the environmen…
Social support, depressed mood, and adjustment to stress: A genetic epidemiologic investigation
A survey of 821 same-sex female twin pairs from a population-based registry assessed 8 dimensions of social support and social integration. Twin analyses documented significant common environmental influences on 5 of these 8 measures and significant genetic influences on 5 of the 8. A decomposition of the multiplicative association between support and a measure of stressful life experiences in predicting depressed mood--an association typically i…
Evidence for genetic influences on personality from self-reports and informant ratings
Self-report data on Extraversion (E) and Neuroticism (N), together with ratings by the co-twin, were obtained from a sample of 826 adult female twin pairs ascertained through a population-based twin register. Data were analyzed using a model that allowed for the contributions to personality ratings of the rater's personality (rater bias) as well as of the personality of the person being rated. For E, but not for N, significant rater bias was foun…
Multiple Regression With Data Collected From Relatives: Testing Assumptions of the Model
Multiple regression is a causal model of the relationship between sets of independent (X) and dependent (Y) variables. This model is extended to cover data collected from relatives, where the observations are not independent. If correct, the model permits appropriate statistical tests of regression coefficients in data collected from relatives. Across relative covariances, particularly across the independent and dependent variables may reject the…
Testing a model for the genetic structure of personality: A comparison of the personality systems of Cloninger and Eysenck
Genetic analysis of data from 2.680 adult .~iantwin pailS demonstrated signiiic:mt genetic conuibutions to variation in scores on the Harm Avoidance.:-fovelty Seelcing, and Reward Dependence SCLIes of Ooningcr's Tridimensional Personality Questiol1Dllire (TPQ).accounting for between 54% and 61 '!& of the stable variation in tllese traits.Multivariate genetic triangular decom~ sition models were fitted to determine the extent to wbidl the TPQ asse…
Genetic and environmental structure of the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire: Three or four temperament dimensions
Previous phenotypic factor analyses suggest that C. R. Cloninger's Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ; 1987c) assesses 4 rather than 3 temperament dimensions. The purpose of this study was to determine whether Cloninger's revised 4-factor model showed incremental validity over his original model and to investigate the convergent and discriminant validity of Cloninger's dimensions in comparison to the personality dimensions proposed by …
The Consistency of Recalled Age at First Sexual Intercourse
It is widely believed that people can remember the age at which they first had sexual intercourse. Questions about age at onset are routinely asked in population sexual behaviour surveys and in clinical history-taking. However, there are limited test–retest data, especially with regard to individual differences in unreliable recall. In this study, telephone interviews and follow-ups an average of 15 months later were conducted with 570 non-virgin…
Participation bias in a sexuality survey: Psychological and behavioural characteristics of responders and non-responders
BACKGROUND: Few studies of sexual attitudes and behaviour have quantified the direction and magnitude of participation bias, primarily because information on non-responders is difficult to obtain in cross-sectional surveys. METHOD: Australian adult twins (n = 9112) aged 17-52 years enrolled in a national, longitudinal research register were asked to participate in a postal survey concerning their sexual behaviour and attitudes. Individual consent…
Heritability of SF-36 Among Middle-Age, Middle-Class, Male???Male Twins
OBJECTIVE: We sought to examine the relative importance of genetic and environmental factors for the MOS SF-36; a widely used, valid, and reliable measure of health-related quality of life and to discuss incorporating genetic influences into health services research. DATA SOURCES: Data are from a nationally distributed, nonclinical cohort of 2928 middle age, middle-class, male-male twin members of the Vietnam Era Twin Registry. STUDY DESIGN: This…
Mental Representations of Attachment in Identical Female Twins with and without Conduct Problems
A genetically informed study of the processes underlying the association between parental marital instability and offspring adjustment
Parental divorce is associated with problematic offspring adjustment, but the relation may be due to shared genetic or environmental factors. One way to test for these confounds is to study offspring of twins discordant for divorce. The current analyses used this design to separate the mechanisms responsible for the association between parental divorce, experienced either before or after the age of 16, and offspring well-being. The results were c…
The Genetics of Voting: An Australian Twin Study
A Genetically Informed Study of the Intergenerational Transmission of Marital Instability
Environmental or genetic influences, or both could account for the increased risk of divorce among the offspring of separated parents. Previous studies have used covariates to statistically control for confounds, but the present research is the first genetically informed study of the topic. The investigation used the Children of Twins Design with twins, their spouses, and their young adult offspring (n = 2,310) from the Australian Twin Registry t…
Common SNPs explain a large proportion of the heritability for human height
Population Composition, Public Policy, and the Genetics of Smoking
In this article, we explore the effect of public policy on the extent to which genes influence smoking desistance. Using a sample of adult twins (nmz = 363, ndz = 233) from a large population registry, we estimate Cox proportional hazards models that describe similarity in the timing of smoking desistance among adult twin pairs. We show that identical twin pairs are significantly more likely to quit smoking within a similar time frame compared wi…
A Genome-Wide Analysis of Liberal and Conservative Political Attitudes
The assumption that the transmission of social behaviors and political preferences is purely cultural has been challenged repeatedly over the last 40 years by the combined evidence of large studies of adult twins and their relatives, adoption studies, and twins reared apart. Variance components and path modeling analyses using data from extended families quantified the overall genetic influence on political attitudes, but few studies have attempt…
Human gut microbiome viewed across age and geography
Gut microbial communities represent one source of human genetic and metabolic diversity. To examine how gut microbiomes differ among human populations, here we characterize bacterial species in fecal samples from 531 individuals, plus the gene content of 110 of them. The cohort encompassed healthy children and adults from the Amazonas of Venezuela, rural Malawi and US metropolitan areas and included mono- and dizygotic twins. Shared features of t…
GWAS of 126,559 Individuals Identifies Genetic Variants Associated with Educational Attainment
Genetic College Many genomic elements in humans are associated with behavior, including educational attainment. In a genome-wide association study including more than 100,000 samples, Rietveld et al. (p. 1467 , published online 30 May; see the Perspective by Flint and Munafò ) looked for genes related to educational attainment in Caucasians. Small genetic effects at three loci appeared to impact educational attainment.
Genetic studies of body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology
Genetic variants associated with subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism identified through genome-wide analyses
Genome-wide association study identifies 74 loci associated with educational attainment
Genetic evidence of assortative mating in humans
Genome-wide association analyses identify 44 risk variants and refine the genetic architecture of major depression
The Impact of Traumatic Experiences on Risky Sexual Behaviors in Black and White Young Adult Women
Psychology (23 works) · Biology (19 works) · Genetics (17 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Developmental psychology (13 works) · Cognitive Abilities and Testing (12 works) · Genetic Associations and Epidemiology (12 works) · Genetics (10 works) · Clinical Psychology (9 works) · Gene (9 works)