Saturday, October 31, 2020

Genes for Walking at a Brisk Pace (yes, this is real)

 Another absurd GWAS:

Genome-wide association study of self-reported walking pace suggests beneficial effects of brisk walking on health and survival

The fact that I see scientists in the field taking this seriously rather having some self-reflection is a good indication of the lack of common sense that drives these studies. I am not going to pick through it. I hereby just mock it.

Yet Another Study Showing that Polygenic Scores are Confounded by Population Stratification

 Another study related to height PGS:

Polygenic adaptation on height is overestimated due to uncorrected stratification in genome-wide association studies

It should at some point become clear that GWAS and their cousin, the "polygenic score" are little more than measures of population stratification and other such issues in the population being studied (or the database being used). In this case, here is the money shot:

More generally, our results imply that typical constructions of polygenic scores are sensitive to population stratification and that population-level differences should be interpreted with caution.

I would be grateful if someone could tell me what interpreting with caution would look like? How about stop making these interpretations, instead?