STrengthening the REporting of Genetic Association Studies (STREGA) – An Extension of the STROBE Statement

Authors

  • Julian Little Canada Research Chair in Human Genome Epidemiology; Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • Julian P.T. Higgins MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge, UK
  • John P.A. Ioannidis Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Greece and Center for Genetic Epidemiology and Modeling, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, USA;
  • David Moher Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • France Gagnon CIHR New Investigator and Canada Research Chair in Genetic Epidemiology, University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Erik von Elm Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland and German Cochrane Centre, Department of Medical Biometry and Medical Informatics, University Medical Centre, Freiburg, Germany
  • Muin J. Khoury National Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Atlanta, USA;
  • Barbara Cohen Former Senior Editor, Public Library of Science, San Francisco, CA
  • George Davey-Smith MRC Centre for Causal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, UK
  • Jeremy Grimshaw Canada Research Chair in Health Knowledge Transfer and Uptake, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Health Research Institute, Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa
  • Paul Scheet University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Epidemiology, Houston, Texas
  • Marta Gwinn National Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Atlanta, USA
  • Robin E. Williamson Deputy Editor, American Journal of Human Genetics, Boston, USA
  • Guang Yong Zou Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario,
  • Kim Hutchings Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • Candice Y. Johnson Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • Valerie Tait Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • Miriam Wiens Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • Jean Golding Editor, Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, Bristol, UK
  • Cornelia van Duijn Editor, European Journal of Epidemiology, Rotterdam, Netherlands
  • John McLaughlin Cancer Care Ontario, Toronto, and Prosserman Centre for Health Research at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Andrew Paterson Canada Research Chair in Genetics of Complex Diseases, Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto, Canada
  • George Wells Director, Cardiovascular Research Methods Centre, University of Ottawa Heart Institute Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • Isabel Fortier Genome Quebec & P3G Observatory, McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Center Docteur Penfield, Montréal QC Canada
  • Matthew Freedman Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA
  • Maja Zecevic Senior Editor, Lancet, New York
  • Richard King Senior Editor, Lancet, New York; 22 Editor, Genetics in Medicine, Minneapolis, MN
  • Claire Infante-Rivard Canada Research Chair- James McGill Professor Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
  • Alex Stewart University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Ontario Canada
  • Christian Arias Barona Instituto de Estudios de América Latina y el Caribe | Universidad de Buenos Aires https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8553-4244

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2427/5779

Abstract

Making sense of rapidly evolving evidence on genetic associations is crucial to making genuine advances in human genomics and the eventual integration of this information in the practice of medicine and public health. Assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of this evidence, and hence the ability to synthesize it, has been limited by inadequate reporting of results. The STrengthening the REporting of Genetic Association studies (STREGA) initiative builds on the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Statement and provides additions to 12 of the 22 items on the STROBE checklist. The additions concern population stratification, genotyping errors, modelling haplotype variation, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, replication, selection of participants, rationale for choice of genes and variants, treatment effects in studying quantitative traits, statistical methods, relatedness, reporting of descriptive and outcome data, and the volume of data issues that are important to consider in genetic association studies. The STREGA recommendations do not prescribe or dictate how a genetic association study should be designed but seek to enhance the transparency of its reporting, regardless of choices made during design, conduct, or analysis.

Downloads

Published

2009-09-30

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 3 (2009)

Section

Free Papers