Challenges of Exploratory Visualization of Gene-environment Interaction in Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States. Although several genetic and environmental factors have been implicated in AD risks, no single factor is found solely responsible for disease manifestation in all Alzheimer's cases. In cases when no single gene can explain causality, the scenario of a combination of factors with modest effect sizes has been suggested. Through means of visual analysis in Weave we uncovered and further strengthened growing evidence for the link between genetics, air pollution and an earlier onset of Alzheimer's disease as exemplified in US cities with the highest reported levels of toxicity. Major sources of bias impacting our dataset are examined to caution the reader about the value of correlation findings in this less than ideal study sample.