Steiger filtering

Author

Gibran Hemani

Published

August 10, 2017

Resources

Code (Language: R) Website Paper (Pub Date: 2017-08-10)

Other URLS: none

Method Contact: Gibran Hemani ( g.hemani@bristol.ac.uk)

Entry Contact: Gibran Hemani ( g.hemani@bristol.ac.uk)

Context

Analysis Type: UVMR MVMR Network MR Bi-Directional MR Non-Linear

Input Data Types: Ind/Ind Ind/SS SS/Ind SS/SSfamily

Exposure Trait Types: Quantitative Binary Time to event

Outcome Trait Types: Quantitative Binary Time to event

Assumptions and Sources of Bias

Source of Bias Addressed
Weak instruments ✗
Winner’s curse ✗
Sample overlap ✗
Uncorrelated horizontal pleiotropy ✗
Correlated horizontal pleiotropy ✓
Ancestry differences in samples ✗
Residual confounding in GWAS ✗
Cross-trait assortative mating ✗
Index-event/conditioning on heritable trait ✗

Description

Steiger filtering aims to improve MR analyses by identifying genetic factors that primarily associate with an unintended trait. For example in the situation where the hypothesised outcome in fact influences the hypothesised exposure, apparent instruments for the exposure may primarily associate with the outcome, and lead to bias in the MR estimate. Steiger filtering aims to remove such instruments from the data prior to analysis.