Bias in Gene-by-Environment Interaction Effects with Sum Scores; An Application to Well-being Phenotypes

Dirk H.M. Pelt; Inga Schwabe; Meike Bartels

doi:10.1007/s10519-023-10137-y

Bias in Gene-by-Environment Interaction Effects with Sum Scores; An Application to Well-being Phenotypes

Dirk H.M. Pelt^*, Inga Schwabe, Meike Bartels

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

In the current study, we investigated the influence of using skewed sum scores on estimated gene-by-environment interaction effects (GxE) for life satisfaction and happiness with perceived social support. To this end, we analyzed item-level data from a large adult twin sample (Ns between 3610 and 11,305) of the Netherlands Twin Register. Item response theory (IRT) models were incorporated in unmeasured (univariate) GxE models, and measured GxE models (with social support as moderator). We found that skewness introduced spurious GxE effects, with the largest effect for the most skewed variable (social support). Finally, in the IRT model for life satisfaction, but not for happiness, heritability estimates decreased with higher social support, while this was not observed when analyzing sum scores. Together, our results indicate that IRT can be used to address psychometric issues related to the use of sum scores, especially in the context of GxE, for complex traits like well-being.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	359-373
Number of pages	15
Journal	Behavior Genetics
Volume	53
Issue number	4
Early online date	1 Mar 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-023-10137-y
Publication status	Published - Jul 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work is supported by an European Research Council Consolidator Grant (ERC-2017-COG 771057 WELL-BEING PI Bartels). Data collection in the NTR was supported by: NWO large investment (480-15-001/674; Netherlands Twin Registry Repository: researching the interplay between genome and environment), The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Grant No. NWO-MW 904-61-193), and the Addiction programme of ZonMW (Grant No. 31160008).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).

Funding

This work is supported by an European Research Council Consolidator Grant (ERC-2017-COG 771057 WELL-BEING PI Bartels). Data collection in the NTR was supported by: NWO large investment (480-15-001/674; Netherlands Twin Registry Repository: researching the interplay between genome and environment), The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Grant No. NWO-MW 904-61-193), and the Addiction programme of ZonMW (Grant No. 31160008). The analyses were carried out on the Lisa Cluster computer, part of the Dutch national e-infrastructure with the support of SURF Cooperative. The authors thank all NTR participants who participated in this study.

Funders	Funder number
SURF Cooperative
European Research Council	ERC-2017-COG 771057, 480-15-001/674
European Research Council
ZonMw	31160008
ZonMw
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	NWO-MW 904-61-193
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

Keywords

Genotype by environment interaction
Item Response Theory
Measurement error
Sum scores
Twin studies
Well-being

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10.1007/s10519-023-10137-y

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title = "Bias in Gene-by-Environment Interaction Effects with Sum Scores; An Application to Well-being Phenotypes",

abstract = "In the current study, we investigated the influence of using skewed sum scores on estimated gene-by-environment interaction effects (GxE) for life satisfaction and happiness with perceived social support. To this end, we analyzed item-level data from a large adult twin sample (Ns between 3610 and 11,305) of the Netherlands Twin Register. Item response theory (IRT) models were incorporated in unmeasured (univariate) GxE models, and measured GxE models (with social support as moderator). We found that skewness introduced spurious GxE effects, with the largest effect for the most skewed variable (social support). Finally, in the IRT model for life satisfaction, but not for happiness, heritability estimates decreased with higher social support, while this was not observed when analyzing sum scores. Together, our results indicate that IRT can be used to address psychometric issues related to the use of sum scores, especially in the context of GxE, for complex traits like well-being.",

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Bias in Gene-by-Environment Interaction Effects with Sum Scores; An Application to Well-being Phenotypes

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Using Item Response Theory Modeling to Address Psychometric Issues in Genetic Findings for Happiness, Satisfaction with Life, and Social Support

Using item response theory modeling to address bias in genetic findings for happiness, life satisfaction, and social support

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