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Semiparametric estimation of major gene effects for age of onset
Author(s) -
Li Hongzhe,
Thompson Elizabeth A.,
Wijsman Ellen M.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
genetic epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.301
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1098-2272
pISSN - 0741-0395
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1098-2272(1998)15:3<279::aid-gepi6>3.0.co;2-#
Subject(s) - estimation , genetics , biology , statistics , econometrics , computational biology , mathematics , economics , management
Analysis of age of onset is a key factor in the segregation and linkage analysis of some complex genetic traits. Previous work in the genetics literature has used parametric distributional assumptions on age of onset. In this paper, a Cox model with latent major gene effects is used: a semiparametric model with unspecified baseline hazard. A Monte Carlo EM procedure is used to obtain maximum likelihood estimates. Markov chain Monte Carlo is used to realize genotypic configurations from the posterior distribution given the current model and the observed data, and these genotypic configurations are used to estimate the expectations in the EM algorithm. Simulated data sets indicate that the parameters can be estimated well, and one real data set shows the practical applicability of the proposed method. Genet. Epidemiol. 15:279–298, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.