SEM Across Very Different Traits

is it possible to run SEM on traits totaly different like Cancer and Psychiatric disorders?

Replying to “is it possible to run SEM on traits totaly differe…”:

yes

Replying to “is it possible to run SEM on traits totaly differe…”:

as long as there is a gwas you can combine them

Replying to “is it possible to run SEM on traits totaly differe…”:

Within the same ancestry group.

Replying to “is it possible to run SEM on traits totaly differe…”:

I would add - you would need some level of genetic overlap between traits you include in your model

Replying to “is it possible to run SEM on traits totaly differe…”:

Absolutely!! The only thing I would add is it’s good to check what the pairwise genetic correlations are between your traits of interest because if all the correlations are very low e.g. <0.10 then the model might not converge very well in the SEM part, but most of the time there’s actually pretty decent correlations between what seem like different traits

Replying to “is it possible to run SEM on traits totaly differe…”:

especially if the traits are very polygenic and complex