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Participation Bias

Definition
AI-generated

Participation bias arises when individuals who enroll in a study (e.g. a biobank) differ systematically from the source population in genetics, health, or socioeconomic factors, so association and prediction estimates may not generalize and can interact with collider structures.

Topics
Epidemiology
Related
Bias Biobank Japan Cohort

Why it matters in GWAS

Large cohorts such as UK Biobank are invaluable but healthier and more educated on average than national samples; PRS calibration, prevalence estimates, and selection-aware methods should reflect this.

Example usage

"We cited UK Biobank participation bias when calibrating absolute risk estimates for the general population."

Bias Biobank Japan Cohort Collider Bias Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) Polygenic Risk Score (PRS) UK Biobank
Related-term network

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Node order. The current term is first. Next come every page linked from Related terms, in the same top-to-bottom order as that list. Then new terms appear in two-hop layers: for each of those direct neighbors (in that same order), their related terms are appended if not already listed. A third pass does the same for two-hop nodes. The walk stops when a fixed maximum number of nodes is reached.

References

  • Fry A, et al. (2017). Comparison of sociodemographic and health-related characteristics of UK Biobank participants with those of the general population. Am J Epidemiol.
  • Pirastu N, et al. (2021). Genetic analyses identify widespread sex-differential participation bias. Nat Genet.
  • Uffelmann E, et al. (2021). Genome-wide association studies. Nat Rev Methods Primers. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-021-00056-9
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