Feeling of Cold Hands and Feet is a Highly Heritable Phenotype

Abstract

The prevalence of the feeling of cold hands and feet (FCHF) is high in the general population but the etiology of FCHF is largely unknown. The aim of the present study was to explore whether the FCHF is heritable. Eight hundred and ninety-four pairs of twins completed a question about FCHF. Tetrachoric correlations for FCHF were .58, .29, .67, .52, and .04 for monozygotic male, dizygotic male, monozygotic female, and dizygotic female twins, respectively. Model-fitting analyses suggested that in the best fitting model, additive genetic and nonshared environmental variance including measurement error were 64% (95% CI: 55%-72%) and 36% (28%-45%), respectively. Sex differences in genetic and environmental influences were not significant.