Correcting systematic inflation in genetic association tests that consider interaction effects: application to a genome-wide association study of posttraumatic stress disorder.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Genetic association studies of psychiatric outcomes often consider interactions with environmental exposures and, in particular, apply tests that jointly consider gene and gene-environment interaction effects for analysis. Using a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), we report that heteroscedasticity (defined as variability in outcome that differs by the value of the environmental exposure) can invalidate traditional joint tests of gene and gene-environment interaction.

Objectives

To identify the cause of bias in traditional joint tests of gene and gene-environment interaction in a PTSD GWAS and determine whether proposed robust joint tests are insensitive to this problem.

Design, setting, and participants

The PTSD G

SUBMITTER: Almli LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4293022 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature