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Brazilian Twin Studies: A Scoping Review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2024

Eloisa de Souza Fernandes ,
Isabella França Ferreira ,
Renata Pereira de Felipe ,
Nancy Segal  and
Emma Otta Open the ORCID record for Emma Otta [Opens in a new window]
Eloisa de Souza Fernandes
Affiliation:
Departamento de Psicologia Experimental, Instituto de Psicologia (IP), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brazil
Isabella França Ferreira
Affiliation:
Departamento de Psicologia Experimental, Instituto de Psicologia (IP), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brazil
Renata Pereira de Felipe
Affiliation:
Departamento de Psicologia Experimental, Instituto de Psicologia (IP), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brazil
Nancy Segal
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, California State University, Fullerton, California, USA
Emma Otta*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Psicologia Experimental, Instituto de Psicologia (IP), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brazil
*
Corresponding author: Emma Otta; Email: emmaotta@usp.br
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Abstract

The current study was motivated by an interest in deepening understanding of Brazilian twin research, which is underrepresented internationally, in an effort to rectify this situation. Our aim was threefold: (1) to carry out a comprehensive investigation of Brazilian research on twins according to the area of knowledge; (2) to evaluate the representation of research in the field of psychology in comparison with other areas; (3) to evaluate characteristics of the research that may have contributed to its exclusion from the comprehensive meta-analysis of 50 years of twin research. A scoping review was performed according to PRISMA guidelines. Titles and abstracts were searched up to 2022 in six databases: CAPES, BDLTD, PePSIC, PubMed, Google Scholar, and SciELO, using selected keywords both in Portuguese and in English (e.g., ‘twins’ and ‘Brazil’; ‘twinning’ and ‘Brazil’; ‘gemelaridade’ [twinning], and ‘gêmeos’ [twins]). Three hundred and forty publications were included in the review. Approximately half (53.8‰) used the classic twin design to investigate the heritability of several traits, and the other half (46.2%) used other research designs. The scoping review showed that the number of publications doubled approximately every 10 years. Most publications were from the health area, with medicine accounting for approximately half of the studies, followed by psychology, odontology, and biology. We found that the interest in studying twins among Brazilian scientists is increasing over the years and there are reasons to be enthusiastic about the potential impact of this trend in the global scenario.

Keywords

TwinHeritabilityBehavior GeneticsScoping review
Type
Article
Information
Twin Research and Human Genetics , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , April 2024 , pp. 105 - 114
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Society for Twin Studies

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