The hidden problem of genetic confounding in health research

Project Summary

Confounding is one of the greatest challenges in conducting epidemiology research. In trying to establish causation, researchers must account for all confounders (i.e. other variables that are causally associated with both the exposure and the outcome but not in the causal pathway). Genetic factors are almost always omitted from consideration as confounders in the investigation of non-genetic exposures and health outcomes. Despite many diseases being inherited, most researchers fail to consider that the same genetic factors that causes the disease may also be related to the exposure of interest. If the genetic factors for the outcome also are associated with the exposure, this would cause genetic confounding and could lead to incorrect results. Using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, our research will employ and compare new methods to examine the extent of the problem of genetic confounding in health research.