IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/somere/v37y2008i2p164-200.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Importance of Gene—Environment Interaction

Author

Listed:
  • Kari E. North

    (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, kari_north@unc.edu)

  • Lisa J. Martin

    (Cincinnati Children's Medical Hospital and the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine, Ohio)

Abstract

Given recent genetic advances, it is not surprising that genetics information is increasingly being used to improve health care. Thousands of conditions caused by single genes (Mendelian diseases) have been identified over the last century. However, Mendelian diseases are rare; thus, few individuals directly benefit from gene identification. In contrast, common complex diseases, such as obesity, breast cancer, and depression, directly affect many more individuals. Common complex diseases are caused by multiple genes, environmental factors, and/or interaction of genetic and environmental factors. This article provides a framework for the successful conduct of gene—environment studies. To accomplish this goal, the basic study designs and procedures of implementation for gene—environment interaction are described. Next, examples of gene—environment interaction in obesity epidemiology are reviewed. Last, the authors review reasons why epidemiological studies that incorporate gene—environment interaction have been unable to demonstrate statistically significant interactions and why conflicting results are reported.

Suggested Citation

  • Kari E. North & Lisa J. Martin, 2008. "The Importance of Gene—Environment Interaction," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 37(2), pages 164-200, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:37:y:2008:i:2:p:164-200
    DOI: 10.1177/0049124108323538
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0049124108323538
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0049124108323538?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Neil J. Risch, 2000. "Searching for genetic determinants in the new millennium," Nature, Nature, vol. 405(6788), pages 847-856, June.
    2. Elisabeth Dawson & Gonçalo R. Abecasis & Suzannah Bumpstead & Yuan Chen & Sarah Hunt & David M. Beare & Jagjit Pabial & Thomas Dibling & Emma Tinsley & Susan Kirby & David Carter & Marianna Papaspyrid, 2002. "A first-generation linkage disequilibrium map of human chromosome 22," Nature, Nature, vol. 418(6897), pages 544-548, August.
    3. David E. Reich & Michele Cargill & Stacey Bolk & James Ireland & Pardis C. Sabeti & Daniel J. Richter & Thomas Lavery & Rose Kouyoumjian & Shelli F. Farhadian & Ryk Ward & Eric S. Lander, 2001. "Linkage disequilibrium in the human genome," Nature, Nature, vol. 411(6834), pages 199-204, May.
    4. Shostak, Sara, 2003. "Locating gene-environment interaction: at the intersections of genetics and public health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(11), pages 2327-2342, June.
    5. Maria Eriksson & W. Ted Brown & Leslie B. Gordon & Michael W. Glynn & Joel Singer & Laura Scott & Michael R. Erdos & Christiane M. Robbins & Tracy Y. Moses & Peter Berglund & Amalia Dutra & Evgenia Pa, 2003. "Recurrent de novo point mutations in lamin A cause Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome," Nature, Nature, vol. 423(6937), pages 293-298, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Qin Yang & Huaguo Chen & Baizhan Li, 2015. "Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Indoor Dusts of Guizhou, Southwest of China: Status, Sources and Potential Human Health Risk," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, February.
    2. Jungnam Joo & Minjung Kwak & Gang Zheng, 2010. "Improving Power for Testing Genetic Association in Case–Control Studies by Reducing the Alternative Space," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 66(1), pages 266-276, March.
    3. Chung-Feng Kao & Jia-Rou Liu & Hung Hung & Po-Hsiu Kuo, 2015. "A Robust GWSS Method to Simultaneously Detect Rare and Common Variants for Complex Disease," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-14, April.
    4. Haipeng Li & Thomas Wiehe, 2013. "Coalescent Tree Imbalance and a Simple Test for Selective Sweeps Based on Microsatellite Variation," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(5), pages 1-14, May.
    5. Mamo, Laura & Epstein, Steven, 2014. "The pharmaceuticalization of sexual risk: Vaccine development and the new politics of cancer prevention," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 155-165.
    6. Li Qin & Wu Rongling, 2009. "A Multilocus Model for Constructing a Linkage Disequilibrium Map in Human Populations," Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-27, February.
    7. Xiaoshuai Zhang & Xiaowei Yang & Zhongshang Yuan & Yanxun Liu & Fangyu Li & Bin Peng & Dianwen Zhu & Jinghua Zhao & Fuzhong Xue, 2013. "A PLSPM-Based Test Statistic for Detecting Gene-Gene Co-Association in Genome-Wide Association Study with Case-Control Design," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-8, April.
    8. Mu Li & Aaron Zhong & Youjun Wu & Mega Sidharta & Michael Beaury & Xiaolan Zhao & Lorenz Studer & Ting Zhou, 2022. "Transient inhibition of p53 enhances prime editing and cytosine base-editing efficiencies in human pluripotent stem cells," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    9. Jorge Mata-Garrido & Yao Xiang & Yunhua Chang-Marchand & Caroline Reisacher & Elisabeth Ageron & Ida Chiara Guerrera & Iñigo Casafont & Aurelia Bruneau & Claire Cherbuy & Xavier Treton & Anne Dumay & , 2022. "The Heterochromatin protein 1 is a regulator in RNA splicing precision deficient in ulcerative colitis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, December.
    10. Patricia R. Pitrez & Luis M. Monteiro & Oliver Borgogno & Xavier Nissan & Jerome Mertens & Lino Ferreira, 2024. "Cellular reprogramming as a tool to model human aging in a dish," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    11. Jaya M. Satagopan & E. S. Venkatraman & Colin B. Begg, 2004. "Two-Stage Designs for Gene–Disease Association Studies with Sample Size Constraints," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 60(3), pages 589-597, September.
    12. Li, Zhaohai & Zhang, Hong & Zheng, Gang & Gastwirth, Joseph L. & Gail, Mitchell H., 2009. "Excess false positive rate caused by population stratification and disease rate heterogeneity in case-control association studies," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 1767-1781, March.
    13. Ding Xiao & Weiss Scott & Raby Benjamin & Lange Christoph & Laird Nan M, 2009. "Impact of Population Stratification on Family-Based Association Tests with Longitudinal Measurements," Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-19, February.
    14. Sirkku Karinen & Tuomas Heikkinen & Heli Nevanlinna & Sampsa Hautaniemi, 2011. "Data Integration Workflow for Search of Disease Driving Genes and Genetic Variants," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(4), pages 1-8, April.
    15. Shuo Jiao & Li Hsu & Sonja Berndt & Stéphane Bézieau & Hermann Brenner & Daniel Buchanan & Bette J Caan & Peter T Campbell & Christopher S Carlson & Graham Casey & Andrew T Chan & Jenny Chang-Claude &, 2012. "Genome-Wide Search for Gene-Gene Interactions in Colorectal Cancer," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(12), pages 1-14, December.
    16. Konstantin Schildknecht & Sven Olek & Thorsten Dickhaus, 2015. "Simultaneous Statistical Inference for Epigenetic Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(5), pages 1-15, May.
    17. Zhuling Yu & Wei Li & Deren Hou & Lin Zhou & Yanyao Deng & Mi Tian & Xialu Feng, 2015. "Relationship between Adiponectin Gene Polymorphisms and Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-11, April.
    18. Wanwan Tang & Xuebing Wu & Rui Jiang & Yanda Li, 2009. "Epistatic Module Detection for Case-Control Studies: A Bayesian Model with a Gibbs Sampling Strategy," PLOS Genetics, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(5), pages 1-18, May.
    19. Pietro Biroli & Titus Galama & Stephanie von Hinke & Hans van Kippersluis & Kevin Thom, 2022. "Economics and Econometrics of Gene-Environment Interplay," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 22/759, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    20. Shuxia Guo & Yunhua Hu & Yusong Ding & Jiaming Liu & Mei Zhang & Rulin Ma & Heng Guo & Kui Wang & Jia He & Yizhong Yan & Dongsheng Rui & Feng Sun & Lati Mu & Qiang Niu & Jingyu Zhang & Shugang Li, 2015. "Association between Eight Functional Polymorphisms and Haplotypes in the Cholesterol Ester Transfer Protein (CETP) Gene and Dyslipidemia in National Minority Adults in the Far West Region of China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-14, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:37:y:2008:i:2:p:164-200. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.