Disease Associations and Family‐Based Tests

Abstract

This unit describes the statistical techniques necessary for performing family-based association studies (such as the TDT) for genetic polymorphisms. Such studies have become increasingly important in the identification of genes that confer an increased risk to disease, particularly for common diseases with a complex etiology. The family-based approach avoids some of the problems often encountered when applying the traditional case-control design to genetic studies. The unit includes the Sib TDT (S-TDT) method, which allows application of the principle of the TDT to sibships without parental data, and several related tests.