Refers to the expected attenuation towards the null of an association due to random measurement error in an exposure. This is particularly likely to occur with exposures that have naturally and widely fluctuating levels, such as blood pressure and (non-fasting) glucose.
Because genetic variants represent lifetime (or long-term) changes of an exposure, regression dilution bias is less likely in MR studies compared with other methods, such as multivariable regression, a method also commonly used with observational data. Regression dilution bias can happen, though, in situations where the MR assumptions are violated.
References
- Lawlor DA, Harbord RM, Sterne JAC, Timpson NJ, Davey Smith G. Mendelian randomization: using genes as instruments for making causal inferences in epidemiology. Statistic in Medicine 2008; 27: 1133-1163.
- Davey Smith G, Ebrahim S. "Mendelian randomisation": can genetic epidemiology contribute to understanding environmental determinants of disease? International Journal of Epidemiology 2003; 32: 1-22.
Other terms in 'Sources of bias and limitations in MR':
- Assortative mating
- Canalization
- Collider
- Collider bias
- Conditional F-statistic for multiple exposures
- Confounding
- Exclusion restriction assumption
- F-statistic
- Harmonization (in two-sample MR)
- Homogeneity Assumption
- Horizontal Pleiotropy
- Independence assumption
- INstrument Strength Independent of Direct Effect (InSIDE) assumption
- Intergenerational (or dynastic) effects
- Monotonicity assumption
- MR for testing critical or sensitive periods
- MR for testing developmental origins
- No effect modification assumption
- NO Measurement Error (NOME) assumption
- Non-linear MR
- Non-overlapping samples (in two-sample MR)
- Overfitting
- Pleiotropy
- Population stratification
- R-squared
- Relevance assumption
- Reverse causality
- Same underlying population (in two-sample MR)
- Statistical power and efficiency
- Vertical pleiotropy
- Weak instrument bias
- Winner's curse