Environment and Disease Risks
A new paradigm is needed to assess how a lifetime of exposure to environmental factors affects the risk of developing chronic diseases.
Abstract
Although the risks of developing chronic diseases are attributed to both genetic and environmental factors, 70 to 90% of disease risks are probably due to differences in environments (1–3). Yet, epidemiologists increasingly use genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to investigate diseases, while relying on questionnaires to characterize “environmental exposures.” This is because GWAS represent the only approach for exploring the totality of any risk factor (genes, in this case) associated with disease prevalence. Moreover, the value of costly genetic information is diminished when inaccurate and imprecise environmental data lead to biased inferences regarding gene-environment interactions (4). A more comprehensive and quantitative view of environmental exposure is needed if epidemiologists are to discover the major causes of chronic diseases.
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References and Notes
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Published In
Science
Volume 330 | Issue 6003
22 October 2010
22 October 2010
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Copyright © 2010, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Published in print: 22 October 2010
Acknowledgments
Supported by NIEHS through grants U54ES016115 and P42ES04705.
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- Stephen M. Rappaport,
- Martyn T. Smith
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