Gene-environment analysis in the study of chronic non-communicable diseases

Chronic non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and Alzheimer's disease are correlated with both genetic and environmental risk factors. However, we would incorrectly estimate the risk if we only considered the separate contributions of genetic or environmental factors. The gene-environment interaction is needed to be considered. There are many aspects need to be considered when we perform the gene-environment interaction analysis. This paper reviews the study design, method and examples of gene-environment interaction analysis and may help researchers to conduct such study in the future.