Free news paper METRO highlights our research on genetic influences on sedentary activities

In a study from which our paper was recently published in the scientific journal Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medcine, we investigated the degree to which genetic and environmental influences affect individual differences in sedentary behavior, i.e. screen-viewing activities such as TV watching and computer-time, throughout adolescence. We used data from  5074 adolescent twins (aged 13-19 years) and 937 siblings (aged 12-20 years) from 2777 families from the Netherlands Twin Registry.

The results showed that the genetic architecture of screen-viewing sedentary behavior differed by age. Variation in sedentary behavior among 12-year-olds was accounted for by genetic (boys: 35%; girls: 19%), shared environmental (boys: 29%; girls: 48%), and nonshared environmental (boys: 36%; girls: 34%) factors. Variation in sedentary behavior among 20-year-olds was accounted for by genetic (boys: 48%; girls: 34%) and nonshared environmental (boys: 52%; girls: 66%) factors. Yesterday the free national newspaper METRO highlighted and covered our study on the front page.