Comparing self-reported ethnicity to genetic background measures in the context of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)

Table 4 Type I error associated with the test for association between LV ejection fraction and the 96 AIMs

Control variable	Average Type I error	Standard error	Observed minimum Type I error	Observed maximum Type I error
Individual admixture estimates	0.038	0.0058	0.021	0.042
Principal components	0.048	0.007	0.021	0.052
Self-reported Ethnicity	0.042	0.004	0.031	0.053
Ignoring confounding	0.705	0.009	0.694	0.737

Note that when the confounding effect is ignored the type I error is about 14 times the nominal rate. However, controlling for Self-reported ethnicity alone in this case is sufficient to keep the type I error rate at its nominal value.

ISSN: 2730-6844