Trade‐off between false positives and false negatives in the linkage analysis of complex traits

This study examines the issue of false positives in genomic scans for detecting complex trait loci using sibpair linkage methods and investigates the trade‐off between the rate of false positives and the rate of false negatives. It highlights the tremendous cost in terms of power brought about by an excessive control of type I error and, at the same time, confirms that a larger number of false positives can occur otherwise in the course of a genomic scan. Finally, it compares the power and rate of false positives obtained in preplanned replicated studies conducted using a liberal significance level to those for single‐step studies that use the same total sample size but stricter levels of significance. For the models considered here, replicate studies were found more attractive as long as one is willing to accept a trade‐off, exchanging a much lower rate of false negatives for a slight increase in the rate of false positives. Genet. Epidemiol. 14:453–464,1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.