ELSA Polygenic Scores, 2021

<p>Polygenic scores (PGSs) are specific to each individual and represent an individual load for the common variants that are associated with a trait under study. They are increasingly used to predict disease risks.</p><p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3"></font> </p><p>PGSs have been constructed for a number of behavioural, emotional and health-related phenotypes in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) study (see the main ELSA study under <a title="ELSA" href="https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=5050">SN 5050</a>). ELSA is a large, multidisciplinary study of cohort of men and women living in England aged 50 or over and representative of the English population both in terms of socioeconomic profile and geographic region. The methods employed for creating PGSs are those outlined by the US <a title="Health and Retirement Study" href="https://hrs.isr.umich.edu/about">Health and Retirement Study</a> (HRS - not held at the UK Data Service). This was done in order to harmonise the research across age-related longitudinal studies by adopting a consistent methodology for creating PGSs. By making these PGSs publicly available, it is hoped that they will facilitate wide use among the ELSA data users.</p>