title: Robust trend tests for genetic association in case-control studies using family data.
abstract: We studied a trend test for genetic association between disease and the number of risk alleles using case-control data. When the data are sampled from families, this trend test can be adjusted to take into account the correlations among family members in complex pedigrees. However, the test depends on the scores based on the underlying genetic model and thus it may have substantial loss of power when the model is misspecified. Since the mode of inheritance will be unknown for complex diseases, we have developed two robust trend tests for case-control studies using family data. These robust tests have relatively good power for a class of possible genetic models. The trend tests and robust trend tests were applied to a dataset of Genetic Analysis Workshop 14 from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism.
authors.affiliation: Office of Biostatistics Research, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, 6701 Rockledge Dr, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. tianx@nhlbi.nih.gov
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Jungnam
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Joo
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Jing-Ping
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000235:genetics; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005190:Family; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans