Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
7713391
TITLE
Inferring the direction of causation in cross-sectional twin data: theoretical and empirical considerations.
ABSTRACT
A recent multivariate extension of the classical twin study in theory allows the inference of the direction of causation between correlated traits solely using cross-sectional data. In this paper we briefly review this model and assess its usefulness by applying it to a number of pairs of biological and psychological variables between which the nature of the causative relationship is already known. We conclude that the method has a number of biases and limitations. If a causative relationship at the phenotypic level exists between two traits, the correct direction of causation is usually identifiable, providing the reliability and validity of the measures are known. Failure to correctly specify a measurement model can lead to incorrect tests of hypotheses. Difficulties can also occur when discriminating between a direct causative relationship and a correlation due to common genetic or environmental determinants, but these occur in predictable situations. If these considerations are taken into account in interpretation of results, the true nature of the association between traits can often be correctly identified, or at least included in a subgroup of best fitting models.
DATE PUBLISHED
1994
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 1994/01/01
medline 1994/01/01 00:01
entrez 1994/01/01 00:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Duffy DL Duffy D L DL Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Australia.
Martin NG Martin N G NG
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 11
ISSUE: 6
TITLE: Genetic epidemiology
ISOABBREVIATION: Genet. Epidemiol.
YEAR: 1994
MONTH:
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0741-0395
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Genet Epidemiol
COUNTRY: United States
ISSNLINKING: 0741-0395
NLMUNIQUEID: 8411723
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
REFTYPE REFSOURCE REFPMID NOTE
CommentIn Genet Epidemiol. 1994;11(6):457-61; discussion 463-72 7713388
CommentIn Genet Epidemiol. 1994;11(6):477-82 7713390
CommentIn Genet Epidemiol. 1994;11(6):473-5 7713389
GRANTS
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Bias (Epidemiology)
Causality
Cross-Sectional Studies
Environment
Female
Humans
Male
Models, Genetic
Multivariate Analysis
Phenotype
Research Design
Twin Studies as Topic
Twins genetics
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's