Using Polygenic Scores in Social Science Research: Unraveling Childlessness

Renske M. Verweij; Melinda C. Mills; Gert Stulp; Ilja M. Nolte; Nicola Barban; Felix C. Tropf; Douglas T. Carrell; Kenneth I. Aston; Krina T. Zondervan; Nilufer Rahmioglu; Marlene  Dalgaard; Carina Skaarup; M. Geoffrey Hayes; Andrea Dunaif; Guang Guo; Harold Snieder

doi:10.3389/fsoc.2019.00074

Using Polygenic Scores in Social Science Research: Unraveling Childlessness

Renske M. Verweij^*, Melinda C. Mills, Gert Stulp, Ilja M. Nolte, Nicola Barban, Felix C. Tropf, Douglas T. Carrell, Kenneth I. Aston, Krina T. Zondervan, Nilufer Rahmioglu, Marlene Dalgaard, Carina Skaarup, M. Geoffrey Hayes, Andrea Dunaif, Guang Guo, Harold Snieder

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Biological, genetic, and socio-demographic factors are all important in explaining reproductive behavior, yet these factors are typically studied in isolation. In this study, we explore an innovative sociogenomic approach, which entails including key socio-demographic (marriage, education, occupation, religion, cohort) and genetic factors related to both behavioral [age at first birth (AFB), number of children ever born (NEB)] and biological fecundity-related outcomes (endometriosis, age at menopause and menarche, polycystic ovary syndrome, azoospermia, testicular dysgenesis syndrome) to explain childlessness. We examine the association of all sets of factors with childlessness as well as the interplay between them. We derive polygenic scores (PGS) from recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and apply these in the Health and Retirement Study (N = 10,686) and Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (N = 8,284). Both socio-demographic and genetic factors were associated with childlessness. Whilst socio-demographic factors explain 19–46% in childlessness, the current PGS explains

Original language	English
Article number	74
Journal	Frontiers in Sociology
Volume	4
Number of pages	14
ISSN	2297-7775
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2019.00074
Publication status	Published - 2019

Keywords

Fertility
Childlessness
Polygenic risk scores
Sociogenomics
Infertility

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Verweij, R. M., Mills, M. C., Stulp, G., Nolte, I. M., Barban, N., Tropf, F. C., Carrell, D. T., Aston, K. I., Zondervan, K. T., Rahmioglu, N., Dalgaard, M., Skaarup, C., Hayes, M. G., Dunaif, A., Guo, G., & Snieder, H. (2019). Using Polygenic Scores in Social Science Research: Unraveling Childlessness. Frontiers in Sociology, 4, Article 74. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2019.00074

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abstract = "Biological, genetic, and socio-demographic factors are all important in explaining reproductive behavior, yet these factors are typically studied in isolation. In this study, we explore an innovative sociogenomic approach, which entails including key socio-demographic (marriage, education, occupation, religion, cohort) and genetic factors related to both behavioral [age at first birth (AFB), number of children ever born (NEB)] and biological fecundity-related outcomes (endometriosis, age at menopause and menarche, polycystic ovary syndrome, azoospermia, testicular dysgenesis syndrome) to explain childlessness. We examine the association of all sets of factors with childlessness as well as the interplay between them. We derive polygenic scores (PGS) from recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and apply these in the Health and Retirement Study (N = 10,686) and Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (N = 8,284). Both socio-demographic and genetic factors were associated with childlessness. Whilst socio-demographic factors explain 19–46% in childlessness, the current PGS explains ",

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author = "Verweij, {Renske M.} and Mills, {Melinda C.} and Gert Stulp and Nolte, {Ilja M.} and Nicola Barban and Tropf, {Felix C.} and Carrell, {Douglas T.} and Aston, {Kenneth I.} and Zondervan, {Krina T.} and Nilufer Rahmioglu and Marlene Dalgaard and Carina Skaarup and Hayes, {M. Geoffrey} and Andrea Dunaif and Guang Guo and Harold Snieder",

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AU - Verweij, Renske M.

AU - Mills, Melinda C.

AU - Stulp, Gert

AU - Nolte, Ilja M.

AU - Barban, Nicola

AU - Tropf, Felix C.

AU - Carrell, Douglas T.

AU - Aston, Kenneth I.

AU - Zondervan, Krina T.

AU - Rahmioglu, Nilufer

AU - Dalgaard, Marlene

AU - Skaarup, Carina

AU - Hayes, M. Geoffrey

AU - Dunaif, Andrea

AU - Guo, Guang

AU - Snieder, Harold

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AB - Biological, genetic, and socio-demographic factors are all important in explaining reproductive behavior, yet these factors are typically studied in isolation. In this study, we explore an innovative sociogenomic approach, which entails including key socio-demographic (marriage, education, occupation, religion, cohort) and genetic factors related to both behavioral [age at first birth (AFB), number of children ever born (NEB)] and biological fecundity-related outcomes (endometriosis, age at menopause and menarche, polycystic ovary syndrome, azoospermia, testicular dysgenesis syndrome) to explain childlessness. We examine the association of all sets of factors with childlessness as well as the interplay between them. We derive polygenic scores (PGS) from recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and apply these in the Health and Retirement Study (N = 10,686) and Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (N = 8,284). Both socio-demographic and genetic factors were associated with childlessness. Whilst socio-demographic factors explain 19–46% in childlessness, the current PGS explains

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KW - Sociogenomics

KW - Infertility

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DO - 10.3389/fsoc.2019.00074

M3 - Journal article

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VL - 4

JO - Frontiers in Sociology

JF - Frontiers in Sociology

M1 - 74

ER -

Using Polygenic Scores in Social Science Research: Unraveling Childlessness

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Keywords

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