Effects of censoring on parameter estimates and power in genetic modeling.

Genetic and environmental influences on variance in phenotypic traits may be estimated with normal theory Maximum Likelihood (ML). However, when the assumption of multivariate normality is not met, this method may result in biased parameter estimates and incorrect likelihood ratio tests. We simulated multivariate normal distributed twin data under the assumption of three different genetic models. Genetic model fitting was performed in six data sets: multivariate normal data, discrete uncensored data, censored data, square root transformed censored data, normal scores of censored data, and cate... Mehr ...