Power of the classical twin design revisited: II detection of common environmental variance

Twin Res Hum Genet. 2008 Feb;11(1):48-54. doi: 10.1375/twin.11.1.48.

Abstract

We expand our previous deterministic power calculations by calculating the required sample size to detect C in ACE models. The theoretical expected value of the maximum log-likelihood for the AE model was derived using two optimisation methods and these gave near-identical results. Theoretical predictions were verified by computer simulation and the results agreed very well. We have developed a user-friendly web-based tool, TwinPower, to perform power calculations to detect either A or C for the classical twin design. This new tool can be found at http://genepi.qimr.edu.au/cgi-bin/twinpower.cgi.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Environment*
  • Likelihood Functions
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Research Design
  • Software*
  • Twin Studies as Topic*