Assortative mating and within-spouse pair comparisons

Spousal comparisons have been proposed as a design that can both reduce confounding and estimate effects of the shared adulthood environment. However, assortative mating, the process by which individuals select phenotypically (dis)similar mates, could distort associations when comparing spouses. We...

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Autores principales:	Laurence J. Howe, Thomas Battram, Tim T. Morris, Fernando P. Hartwig, Gibran Hemani, Neil M. Davies, George Davey Smith
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Materias:	Genetics QH426-470
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/4c0d0920af504fe4b69994aaf377263e
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:4c0d0920af504fe4b69994aaf377263e2021-11-25T05:51:59ZAssortative mating and within-spouse pair comparisons1553-73901553-7404https://doaj.org/article/4c0d0920af504fe4b69994aaf377263e2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8594845/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1553-7390https://doaj.org/toc/1553-7404Spousal comparisons have been proposed as a design that can both reduce confounding and estimate effects of the shared adulthood environment. However, assortative mating, the process by which individuals select phenotypically (dis)similar mates, could distort associations when comparing spouses. We evaluated the use of spousal comparisons, as in the within-spouse pair (WSP) model, for aetiological research such as genetic association studies. We demonstrated that the WSP model can reduce confounding but may be susceptible to collider bias arising from conditioning on assorted spouse pairs. Analyses using UK Biobank spouse pairs found that WSP genetic association estimates were smaller than estimates from random pairs for height, educational attainment, and BMI variants. Within-sibling pair estimates, robust to demographic and parental effects, were also smaller than random pair estimates for height and educational attainment, but not for BMI. WSP models, like other within-family models, may reduce confounding from demographic factors in genetic association estimates, and so could be useful for triangulating evidence across study designs to assess the robustness of findings. However, WSP estimates should be interpreted with caution due to potential collider bias. Author summary There is growing evidence that genome-wide association studies capture associations relating to environmental factors, such as indirect effects from parental genotypes. Within-family models such as sibling comparisons can be used to disentangles these different sources of association but are limited by the paucity of sibling data in large biobanks. Within-spouse pair models are a potentially tractable model because spouses share environmental factors in adulthood and may also share early-life environmental factors. Here, we evaluated the application of within-spouse models in genetic association studies, specifically considering assortative mating, a phenomenon whereby individuals may select a phenotypically similar partner. We found that within-spouse pair models can detect genuine confounding in genetic association estimates but are potentially susceptible to collider bias induced by comparing assorted pairs. Within-spouse pair estimates could be useful when combining evidence from different study designs.Laurence J. HoweThomas BattramTim T. MorrisFernando P. HartwigGibran HemaniNeil M. DaviesGeorge Davey SmithPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleGeneticsQH426-470ENPLoS Genetics, Vol 17, Iss 11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Genetics QH426-470
spellingShingle	Genetics QH426-470 Laurence J. Howe Thomas Battram Tim T. Morris Fernando P. Hartwig Gibran Hemani Neil M. Davies George Davey Smith Assortative mating and within-spouse pair comparisons
description	Spousal comparisons have been proposed as a design that can both reduce confounding and estimate effects of the shared adulthood environment. However, assortative mating, the process by which individuals select phenotypically (dis)similar mates, could distort associations when comparing spouses. We evaluated the use of spousal comparisons, as in the within-spouse pair (WSP) model, for aetiological research such as genetic association studies. We demonstrated that the WSP model can reduce confounding but may be susceptible to collider bias arising from conditioning on assorted spouse pairs. Analyses using UK Biobank spouse pairs found that WSP genetic association estimates were smaller than estimates from random pairs for height, educational attainment, and BMI variants. Within-sibling pair estimates, robust to demographic and parental effects, were also smaller than random pair estimates for height and educational attainment, but not for BMI. WSP models, like other within-family models, may reduce confounding from demographic factors in genetic association estimates, and so could be useful for triangulating evidence across study designs to assess the robustness of findings. However, WSP estimates should be interpreted with caution due to potential collider bias. Author summary There is growing evidence that genome-wide association studies capture associations relating to environmental factors, such as indirect effects from parental genotypes. Within-family models such as sibling comparisons can be used to disentangles these different sources of association but are limited by the paucity of sibling data in large biobanks. Within-spouse pair models are a potentially tractable model because spouses share environmental factors in adulthood and may also share early-life environmental factors. Here, we evaluated the application of within-spouse models in genetic association studies, specifically considering assortative mating, a phenomenon whereby individuals may select a phenotypically similar partner. We found that within-spouse pair models can detect genuine confounding in genetic association estimates but are potentially susceptible to collider bias induced by comparing assorted pairs. Within-spouse pair estimates could be useful when combining evidence from different study designs.
format	article
author	Laurence J. Howe Thomas Battram Tim T. Morris Fernando P. Hartwig Gibran Hemani Neil M. Davies George Davey Smith
author_facet	Laurence J. Howe Thomas Battram Tim T. Morris Fernando P. Hartwig Gibran Hemani Neil M. Davies George Davey Smith
author_sort	Laurence J. Howe
title	Assortative mating and within-spouse pair comparisons
title_short	Assortative mating and within-spouse pair comparisons
title_full	Assortative mating and within-spouse pair comparisons
title_fullStr	Assortative mating and within-spouse pair comparisons
title_full_unstemmed	Assortative mating and within-spouse pair comparisons
title_sort	assortative mating and within-spouse pair comparisons
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/4c0d0920af504fe4b69994aaf377263e
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Assortative mating and within-spouse pair comparisons

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