A2 Refereed review article in a scientific journal
Physical activity and health: Findings from Finnish monozygotic twin pairs discordant for physical activity
Authors: Kujala Urho M., Leskinen Tuija, Rottensteiner Mirva, Aaltonen Sari, Ala-Korpela Mika, Waller Katja, Kaprio Jaakko
Publisher: WILEY
Publication year: 2022
Journal: Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports
Journal name in source: SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE & SCIENCE IN SPORTS
Journal acronym: SCAND J MED SCI SPOR
Volume: 32
Issue: 9
First page : 1316
Last page: 1323
Number of pages: 8
ISSN: 0905-7188
eISSN: 1600-0838
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.14205
Web address : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sms.14205
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/176170139
Genetic and early environmental differences including early health habits associate with future health. To provide insight on the causal nature of these associations, monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs discordant for health habits provide an interesting natural experiment. Twin pairs discordant for leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) in early adult life is thus a powerful study design to investigate the associations between long-term LTPA and indicators of health and wellbeing. We have identified 17 LTPA discordant twin pairs from two Finnish twin cohorts and summarize key findings of these studies in this paper. The carefully characterized rare long-term LTPA discordant MZ twin pairs have participated in multi-dimensional clinical examinations. Key findings highlight that compared with less active twins in such MZ twin pairs, the twins with higher long-term LTPA have higher physical fitness, reduced body fat, reduced visceral fat, reduced liver fat, increased lumen diameters of conduit arteries to the lower limbs, increased bone mineral density in loaded bone areas, and an increased number of large high-density lipoprotein particles. The findings increase our understanding on the possible site-specific and system-level effects of long-term LTPA.
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |  |
