Resource Profile and User Guide of the Polygenic Index Repository

Joel Becker, Casper Burik, Grant Goldman, Nancy S. Wang, Hariharan Jayashankar, Michael Bennett, Daniel Belsky, Richard Karlsson Linnér, Rafael Ahlskog, Aaron Kleinman, David A. Hinds, David Corcoran, Terrie Moffitt, Richie Poulton, Karen Sugden, Benjamin Williams, Kathleen Mullan Harris, Andrew Steptoe, Olesya Ajnakina, Lili MilaniTõnu Esko, William G. Iacono, Matt McGue, Patrik K.E. Magnusson, Travis T. Mallard, K. Paige Harden, Elliot M. Tucker-drob, Pamela Herd, Jeremy Freese, Alexander Young, Jonathan P Beauchamp, Philipp D Koellinger, Sven Oskarsson, Magnus Johannesson, Peter M. Visscher, Michelle N Meyer, David Laibson, David Cesarini, Daniel J Benjamin, Patrick Turley, Aysu Okbay

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

64 Citations (Scopus)
69 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Polygenic indexes (PGIs) are DNA-based predictors. Their value for research in many scientific disciplines is growing rapidly. As a resource for researchers, we used a consistent methodology to construct PGIs for 47 phenotypes in 11 datasets. To maximize the PGIs’ prediction accuracies, we constructed them using genome-wide association studies—some not previously published—from multiple data sources, including 23andMe and UK Biobank. We present a theoretical framework to help interpret analyses involving PGIs. A key insight is that a PGI can be understood as an unbiased but noisy measure of a latent variable we call the ‘additive SNP factor’. Regressions in which the true regressor is this factor but the PGI is used as its proxy therefore suffer from errors-in-variables bias. We derive an estimator that corrects for the bias, illustrate the correction, and make a Python tool for implementing it publicly available.

Original languageEnglish
JournalNature Human Behaviour
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Apr 2021

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Resource Profile and User Guide of the Polygenic Index Repository'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this