Epidemiologic Issues in the Design and Analysis of Demographic Surveys Utilizing DNA 'Data'

Elizabeth H. Corder, Duke University

One of the major success stories in the use of genetic information to identify biologic processes important in causing a common disorder at late ages involves Alzheimer disease and the functional polymorphic variants for the apolipoprotein E gene. This story will be used to demonstrate points to consider when designing other genetic studies using nominally population-based samples: 1) Get the DNA at the time the subjects are ascertained as frequencies for the genetic variants may change over time due to selection for mortality. 2) There is age heterogeneity wrt risk for diseases of the elderly. 3) Genetic variants coding for common 'normal' proteins may influence the timing of disease onset or, alternatively, survival for affected persons. 4) It may be desirable to jointly investigate candidate