STrengthening the REporting of Genetic Association Studies (STREGA): An Extension of the STROBE Statement

  1. Julian Little, PhD;
  2. Julian P.T. Higgins, PhD;
  3. John P.A. Ioannidis, MD, PhD;
  4. David Moher, PhD;
  5. France Gagnon, PhD;
  6. Erik von Elm, MD;
  7. Muin J. Khoury, MD, PhD;
  8. Barbara Cohen, PhD;
  9. George Davey-Smith, MD;
  10. Jeremy Grimshaw, MBChB, PhD;
  11. Paul Scheet, PhD;
  12. Marta Gwinn, MD;
  13. Robin E. Williamson, PhD;
  14. Guang Yong Zou, PhD;
  15. Kim Hutchings, MSc;
  16. Candice Y. Johnson, MSc;
  17. Valerie Tait, PhD;
  18. Miriam Wiens, MSc;
  19. Jean Golding, DSc;
  20. Cornelia van Duijn, PhD;
  21. John McLaughlin, PhD;
  22. Andrew Paterson, MD;
  23. George Wells, PhD;
  24. Isabel Fortier, PhD;
  25. Matthew Freedman, MD;
  26. Maja Zecevic, PhD;
  27. Richard King, MD, PhD;
  28. Claire Infante-Rivard, MD, PhD;
  29. Alex Stewart, PhD; and
  30. Nick Birkett, MD
  1. From the University of Ottawa, Ottawa; University of Toronto, Toronto; University of Western Ontario, London; Robarts Research Institute, London; Cancer Care Ontario, Toronto; Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Toronto; and Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Tufts University School of Medicine and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts; Cell Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Lancet Publishing Group, New York, New York; American College of Medical Genetics, Bethesda, Maryland; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; University of Texas, Houston, Texas; Medical Research Council, Cambridge, United Kingdom; University of Bristol and Blackwell Publishing, Bristol, United Kingdom; Springer Netherlands, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; German Cochrane Centre, Freiburg, Germany; University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; and University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Ioannina, Greece.

    Abstract

    Making sense of rapidly evolving evidence on genetic associations is crucial to making genuine advances in human genomics and the eventual integration of this information into the practice of medicine and public health. Assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of this evidence, and hence the ability to synthesize it, has been limited by inadequate reporting of results. The STrengthening the REporting of Genetic Association studies (STREGA) initiative builds on the STrengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Statement and provides additions to 12 of the 22 items on the STROBE checklist. The additions concern population stratification, genotyping errors, modeling haplotype variation, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, replication, selection of participants, rationale for choice of genes and variants, treatment effects in studying quantitative traits, statistical methods, relatedness, reporting of descriptive and outcome data, and issues of data volume that are important to consider in genetic association studies. The STREGA recommendations do not prescribe or dictate how a genetic association study should be designed but seek to enhance the transparency of its reporting, regardless of choices made during design, conduct, or analysis.

    Article and Author Information

    • Acknowledgment: The authors thank Kyle Vogan and Allen Wilcox for their participation in the workshop and for their comments; Michele Cargill (Affymetrix) and Aaron del Duca (DNA Genotek) for their participation in the workshop as observers; and the Public Population Project in Genomics (P3G), hosted by the University of Montreal and supported by Genome Canada and Genome Quebec. This article was made possible thanks to input and discussion by the P3G International Working Group on Epidemiology and Biostatistics, discussion held in Montreal, May 2007. The authors also thank the reviewers for their very thoughtful feedback, and Silvia Visentin, Rob Moriarity, Morgan Macneill, and Valery L'Heureux for administrative support. We were unable to contact Barbara Cohen to confirm her involvement in the latest version of this article.

    • Note: Julian Little holds a Canada Research Chair in Human Genome Epidemiology; France Gagnon holds a Canadian Institutes for Health Research New Investigator Award and a Canada Research Chair in Genetic Epidemiology; Jeremy Grimshaw holds a Canada Research Chair in Health Knowledge Transfer and Uptake; Andrew Paterson holds a Canada Research Chair in Genetics of Complex Diseases; and Claire Infante-Rivard holds a Canada Research Chair and is James McGill Professor at McGill University.

    • Grant Support: By the Institutes of Genetics and of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes, Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Genome Canada; Biotechnology, Genomics and Population Health Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada; Affymetrix; DNA Genotek; TrialStat!; and GeneSens. The funders had no role in the decision to submit the article or in its preparation.

    • Potential Financial Conflicts of Interest: None disclosed.

    • Requests for Single Reprints: Julian Little, PhD, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ontario K1H 8M5, Canada; e-mail, jlittle{at}uottawa.ca.

    • Current Author Addresses: Dr. Little: Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ontario K1H 8M5, Canada.

    • Dr. Higgins: MRC Biostatistics Unit, Institute of Public Health, Forvie Site, Robinson Way, Cambridge CB2 0SR, United Kingdom.

    • Dr. Ioannidis: Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Ioannina 45110, Greece.

    • Dr. Moher: Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ontario K1H 8M5, Canada.

    • Dr. Gagnon: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5T 3M7, Canada.

    • Dr. von Elm: Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Finkenhubelweg 11, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.

    • Dr. Khoury: National Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30333.

    • Dr. Cohen: Public Library of Science, 185 Berry Street, San Francisco, CA 94107.

    • Dr. Cohen: former Senior Editor, Public Library of Science, Public Library of Science, 185 Berry Street, Suite 3100, San Francisco, CA 94107.

    • Dr. Davey-Smith: MRC Centre for Cal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Clifton, Bristol BS8 2BN, United Kingdom.

    • Dr. Grimshaw: Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Health Research Institute, Department of Medicine, Centre for Best Practice, University of Ottawa, The Ottawa Hospital–Civic Site, 1053 Carling Avenue, C-404, Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 4E9, Canada.

    • Dr. Scheet: University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Computational Genetic Epidemiology, 1155 Pressler Boulevard, Unit 1340, Houston, TX 77030.

    • Dr. Gwinn: National Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30333.

    • Dr. Williamson: American Journal of Human Genetics, 77 Avenue Louis Paseur, NRB160C, Boston, MA 02115.

    • Dr. Zou: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Western Ontario, KB 201, Kresge Building, UWO, London, Ontario N6A 5C1, Canada.

    • Ms. Hutchings, Ms. Johnson, Dr. Tate, Ms. Wiens, and Dr. Birkett: Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ontario K1H 8M5, Canada.

    • Dr. Golding: Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, Centre for Child and Adolescent Health, Department of Community Based Medicine, University of Bristol, Barley House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol BS8 2BN, United Kingdom.

    • Dr. van Duijn: European Journal of Epidemiology, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

    • Dr. McLaughlin: Cancer Care Ontario, Toronto, and Prosserman Centre for Health Research at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, 600 University Ave, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X5, Canada.

    • Dr. Paterson: The Centre for Applied Genomics, The Hospital for Sick Children, MaRS Centre–East Tower, 101 College Street, Room 15-707, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada.

    • Dr. Wells: Cardiovascular Research Methods Centre, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, 40 Ruskin Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 4W7, Canada.

    • Dr. Fortier: Genome Quebec & P3G Observatory, 3333 Queen Mary Road, Suite 590, Montréal, Québec H3V 1A2, Canada.

    • Dr. Freedman: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, 44 Binney Street, Mailstop: Dana, 710C, Boston, MA 02115.

    • Dr. Zecevic: The Lancet, 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1710.

    • Dr. King: University of Minnesota, MMC 485, 420 Washington Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55455.

    • Dr. Infante-Rivard: McGill University, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine, 1130 Pine Avenue West, Montréal, Quebec H3A 1A3, Canada.

    • Dr. Stewart: University of Ottawa Heart Institute, 40 Ruskin Street, Room H3100, Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 4W7, Canada.

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