Empirical comparisons of multiple Mendelian randomization approaches in the presence of assortative mating

BACKGROUND: Mendelian randomization (MR) is widely used to unravel causal relationships in epidemiological studies. Whereas multiple MR methods have been developed to control for bias due to horizontal pleiotropy, their performance in the presence of other sources of bias, like non-random mating, has been mostly evaluated using simulated data. Empirical comparisons of MR estimators in such scenarios have yet to be conducted. Pleiotropy and non-random mating have been shown to account equally for the genetic correlation between height and educational attainment. Previous studies probing the cau... Mehr ...