Risks to Relatives

Abstract

AbstractStudying risks to relatives can reveal important information on the likely causes of diseases. Even a modest increased risk for relatives of individuals with the disease (affected probands) compared with relatives of individuals without the disease (unaffected probands) cannot exist without there being strong underlying familial risk factors. Studying risks to relatives as a function of the strength of genetic, environmental and cohabitational relationships to the probands can help resolve whether the familial risk factors are likely to have a genetic and/or environmental aetiology, the more so if specific genes and environmental exposures are measured for one or more of the family m..