FTA: “We use mathematical modeling and analyses of twin cohorts raised together and apart”
So, take one cohort of twins raised together and see how well their life spans correlate.
Take another cohort of twins separated at or near birth and do the same.
Then, do some math magic with both to estimate heritability.
From tfa
> We estimated uncorrected heritability (uncorrected for extrinsic mortality) (materials and methods) in three independent ways: (i) MZ twins reared apart (n = 150), (ii) DZ twins reared apart (n = 371), and (iii) MZ versus DZ twins reared together (196 MZ, 325 DZ)
This is from _one_ of the datasets they examined, but there were also two others. n=150 twins reared apart in their small category, or n=520 twins reared apart total is the lower bound of data they had, and even that is not too shabby imo
I don't have an opinion to offer here other than the intrinsic limitations of studies that depend on twins raised apart (that there aren't many of them). It's an unusual instance of a stat where the obvious concern with the premise is underappreciated rather than overappreciated. I've got nothing on MZ/DZ controls.
ah I see, you're commenting on the general difficulty, not necessarily saying this study's results are bad due to the limitation. My apologies, I don't think we disagree.
This is incorrect. Twin studies typically compare MZ twin similarity against (same sex, usually) DZ twin similarity. Assuming that there is nothing special about MZs for the trait (e.g. in this case if MZ twins lived longer by virtue of being MZ twins), you can estimate heritability free of shared environments.