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Gender Neutrality In Gxe

Decent Essays

resources to social relations that differentially affect their stress reactions and health outcomes ( Simon 1992; Simon 1995). Consequently, it is problematic to assume gender neutrality in the effects of social integration on health.
Gender-moderated GxE in disease pathways
Despite patterns of gender difference in the effects of social integration on health, there is substantial variation in the health promoting properties of social connectedness within gender categories, as well. This suggests that other social or biological factors – including genetics – may moderate this relationship. This is a critical point for GxE research. Men and women with and without genetic sensitivities to environmental stressors may have divergent responses to the same measures of social environment, particularly if there are gender differences in the meanings and consequences attached to those environments.
Interest in the interplay between genes and …show more content…

One critical review presents evidence of strong publication bias toward positive findings in GxE research, particularly when samples are underpowered to detect small interaction effects (Duncan and Keller 2011). On the basis of this, the authors posit that most positive candidate gene-environment interactions are Type I errors (i.e. false positives). However, others remain more optimistic, noting that failure to replicate GxE effects does not necessarily indicate that findings are an artifact of chance. Rather, the replication problem may reflect a compound genetic architecture that is further obscured by an even more complex environment (Greene et al. 2009). Most notably, interactions between multiple genes and environments can render even strong general GxE effects nearly impossible to detect in independent

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