Validated inference of smoking habits from blood with a finite DNA methylation marker set.

ABSTRACT: Inferring a person's smoking habit and history from blood is relevant for complementing or replacing self-reports in epidemiological and public health research, and for forensic applications. However, a finite DNA methylation marker set and a validated statistical model based on a large dataset are not yet available. Employing 14 epigenome-wide association studies for marker discovery, and using data from six population-based cohorts (N = 3764) for model building, we identified 13 CpGs most suitable for inferring smoking versus non-smoking status from blood with a cumulative Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.901. Internal fivefold cross-validation yielded an average AUC of 0.897 ± 0.137, while external model validation in an independent population-based cohort (N = 1608) achieved an AUC of 0

SUBMITTER: Maas SCE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6861351 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature