Multi-locus models of genetic risk of disease

Abstract

Background: Evidence for genetic contribution to complex diseases is described by recurrence risks to relatives of diseased individuals. Genome-wide association studies allow a description of the genetics of the same diseases in terms of risk loci, their effects and allele frequencies. To reconcile the two descriptions requires a model of how risks from individual loci combine to determine an individual's overall risk.Methods: We derive predictions of risk to relatives from risks at individual loci under a number of models and compare them with published data on disease risk.Results: The model in which risks are multiplicative on the risk scale implies equality between the recurrence risk to..