Statistics in Medicine
A Guide for Exploring Pleiotropic Associations in Genome‐Wide Association Studies Using Summary Statistics
ABSTRACT Genome‐wide association studies (GWAS) have shown that pleiotropy, whereby a single genetic variant or gene influences multiple traits, is common in complex human diseases. Detecting cross‐phenotype associations from GWAS summary statistics remains challenging because of small effect sizes, extensive multiple testing, heterogeneous effects, and possible differences in effect direction across traits. Methods that jointly analyze multiple traits can improve the ability to detect pleiotropic signals while ret …