Sports and Genetics. A Study on Twins (351 pairs)

Abstract

SUMMARY After elaborating the data supplied by 351 questionnaires of a survey addressed to 1,241 twin-pairs, the Author shows differences in the behavior of MZ and DZ twin-pairs as to the sports phenomenon. By a first criterium of analysis, relative to sports practice in general, intra-pair dissimilarity is found to correspond to 6% in the case of MZ and to 85% in the case of DZ twin pairs. A second criterium of analysis concerned the kind of sport practiced by pairs concordant as to sports practice in general: the observed concordance as to the kind of sport practiced was more frequent in MZ then in DZ twin-pairs. By a third criterium concerning individual role and performance, the Author has been able to demonstrate that the distribution of DZ pairs, as to concordance, follows opposite patterns than that of MZ pairs. The Author concludes that sports activity, besides exogenous influences, (social environment, training, economic level etc.) is certainly also conditioned by genotypic, hereditary factors.