title: Estimating risks and relative risks in case-base studies under the assumptions of gene-environment independence and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.
abstract: Many diseases result from the interactions between genes and the environment. An efficient method has been proposed for a case-control study to estimate the genetic and environmental main effects and their interactions, which exploits the assumptions of gene-environment independence and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. To estimate the absolute and relative risks, one needs to resort to an alternative design: the case-base study. In this paper, the authors show how to analyze a case-base study under the above dual assumptions. This approach is based on a conditional logistic regression of case-counterfactual controls matched data. It can be easily fitted with readily available statistical packages. When the dual assumptions are met, the method is approximately unbiased and has adequate coverage probabilities for confidence intervals. It also results in smaller variances and shorter confidence intervals as compared with a previous method for a case-base study which imposes neither assumption.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tina Tsz-Ting
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Chui
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Research Center for Genes, Environment and Human Health, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wen-Chung
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000483:Alleles; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005787:Gene Frequency; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D056726:Genetic Association Studies / Q000379:methods*; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D012306:Risk