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Data were analyzed using \u03c72 tests and logistic regression models.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Outcomes<\/jats:title><jats:p>Sociodemographic characteristics, childhood abuse experiences, and polymorphisms of COMT at rs4680, rs4818, and rs6267 and MTHFR at rs1801133.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>More frequent occurrence of physical (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]\u00a0= 1.78), emotional (aOR\u00a0= 2.07), and sexual (aOR\u00a0= 2.53) abuse during childhood was significantly associated with the development of male homosexuality. The polymorphisms of MTHFR at rs1801133 and COMT at rs4818 also were significantly associated with the development of male homosexuality in the homozygote comparisons (T\/T vs C\/C at rs1801133, aOR\u00a0= 1.68; G\/G vs C\/C at rs4818, aOR\u00a0= 1.75). In addition, significant interaction effects between childhood abuse experiences and the COMT and MTHFR genetic variants on the development of male homosexuality were found.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Clinical Translation<\/jats:title><jats:p>This is the first time that an association of childhood abuse, COMT and MTHFR genetic variants, and their interactions with development of male homosexuality was exhaustively explored, which could help provide new insight into the etiology of male homosexuality.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Strengths and Limitations<\/jats:title><jats:p>Because homosexual men are a relatively obscure population, it was impossible to select the study participants by random sampling, which could lead to selection bias. In addition, because this was a case-control study, recall bias was inevitable, and we could not verify causality.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title><jats:p>Childhood abuse and the COMT and MTHFR genetic variants could be positively associated with the development of homosexuality. However, it remains unknown how these factors jointly play a role in the development of homosexuality, and more studies in different ethnic populations and with a larger sample and a prospective design are required to confirm our findings.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jsxm.2017.11.010","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,27]],"date-time":"2017-12-27T08:24:02Z","timestamp":1514363042000},"page":"29-42","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/elsevier_cm_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Childhood Abuse Experiences and the COMT and MTHFR Genetic Variants Associated With Male Sexual Orientation in the Han Chinese Populations: A Case-Control Study"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Jia-Bi","family":"Qin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics , Changsha, Hunan , China"},{"name":"School of Public Health , Changsha, Hunan , China"},{"name":"Central 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China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lin","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics , Changsha, Hunan , China"},{"name":"School of Public Health , Changsha, Hunan , China"},{"name":"Central South University , Changsha, Hunan , China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tie-Jian","family":"Feng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shenzhen Center for Chronic Disease Control , Shenzhen \u00a0 China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"2023012309342383900_bib1","first-page":"951","article-title":"Association analysis between the tag SNP for sonic hedgehog rs9333613 polymorphism and male sexual 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