Mendelian randomization in nutritional epidemiology

Usefulness of Mendelian Randomization in Observational Epidemiology

Mendelian randomization refers to the random allocation of alleles at the time of gamete formation. In observational epidemiology, this refers to the use of genetic variants to estimate a causal effect between a modifiable risk factor and an outcome of interest. In this review, we recall the principles of a "Mendelian randomization" approach in observational epidemiology, which is based on the ...

5. Mendelian randomization

Associations between modifiable exposures and disease seen in observational epidemiology are sometimes confounded and thus misleading, despite our best efforts to improve the design and analysis of studies. Mendelian randomization, the random assortment of genes from parents to offspring that occurs during gamete formation and conception provides one method for assessing the causal nature of so...

Mendelian randomization in family data

The phrase "mendelian randomization" has become associated with the use of genetic polymorphisms to uncover causal relationships between phenotypic variables. The statistical methods useful in mendelian randomization are known as instrumental variable techniques. We present an approach to instrumental variable estimation that is useful in family data and is robust to the use of weak instruments...

Pleiotropy-robust Mendelian randomization.

Background The potential of Mendelian randomization studies is rapidly expanding due to: (i) the growing power of genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analyses to detect genetic variants associated with several exposures; and (ii) the increasing availability of these genetic variants in large-scale surveys. However, without a proper biological understanding of the pleiotropic working of ge...

Running Head: Mendelian Randomization Using Genetic Information to Infer Causality in Observational Data: Mendelian Randomization