Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-02T05:11:37.175Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Testing the equality of twin correlations with multinomial outcomes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 1999

E. BARTFAY
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 5C1
A. DONNER
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 5C1
N. KLAR
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistical Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney Street, Boston, MA, USA, 02115
Get access

Abstract

Twin studies are widely used to study genetic and environmental influences on human measurements. Correlations are often used in such studies to compare the levels of similarity between monozygotic and dizygotic twins with respect to a specified trait. In this paper, we compare three procedures for testing the equality of twin correlations when the outcome variable of interest is multinominal. One method is a likelihood ratio test based on an underlying Dirichlet-multinomial distribution. The second method is based on the estimated large sample variance of the estimated correlation, and the third method is based on a χ2 goodness-of-fit test. The results of a Monte Carlo simulation show that the three methods have similar properties if the number of twin pairs is large (> 100), and the prevalence of the underlying trait is not extreme. Otherwise, the goodness-of-fit approach is to be preferred. We illustrate the methods by analyzing data from a previously published smoking study.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© University College London 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)