A comparison of sample size and power in case-only association studies of gene-environment interaction.

ABSTRACT: Assuming continuous, normally distributed environmental and categorical genotype variables, the authors compare 6 case-only designs for tests of association in gene-environment interaction. Novel tests modeling the environmental variable as either the response or the predictor and allowing a genetic variable with multiallelic variants are included. The authors show that tests imposing the same genotypic pattern of inheritance perform similarly regardless of whether genotype is the response variable or the predictor variable. The novel tests using the genetic variable as the response variable are advantageous because they are robust to non-normally distributed environmental exposures. Dominance deviance-deviation from additivity in the main or interaction effects-is key to test performance:

SUBMITTER: Clarke GM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2816730 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature