The Mortality of Twins: A Case Study from Data of the French Family Surveys 1975 and 1999 in France

Nadège Couvert, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)

Twins children experience more health problems and higher mortality than children born from single pregnancy at least at the early beginning of their life. Thanks to data of French Family surveys 1975 and 1999, this work aims at studying some aspects of twin’s mortality, to compare in particular the age at death between twins and singletons, as well as between members of a same twin pair, or to draw comparisons between monozygotic and dizigotic twins. Moreover it will allow us to evaluate risks of over-contamination between twins of the same pair, compared to an ordinary couple of sister and brother. To finish with, French family surveys that follow individuals during all their life course makes it possible for us to verify whether the overmortality of twins, compared to singletons, is really limited to early life’s ages.