LATENT-CLASS ANALYSIS OF RECURRENCE RISKS FOR COMPLEX PHENOTYPES WITHSELECTION AND MEASUREMENT ERROR - A TWIN AND FAMILY HISTORY STUDY OF AUTISM

The use of the family history method to examine the pattern of recurre nce risks for complex disorders such as autism is not straightforward. Problems such as uncertain phenotypic definition, unreliable measurem ent with increased error rates for more distant relatives, and selecti on due to reduced fertility all complicate the estimation of risk rati os. Using data from a recent family history study of autism, and a sim ilar study of twins, this paper shows how a latent-class approach can be used to tackle these problems. New findings are presented supportin g a multiple-locus model of inheritance, with three loci giving the be st fit.