Computer software SAN and EPID: Family analysis and epidemiology of multifactorial diseases

SAN software, a database management system, is elaborated. It is subject-oriented to family analysis in the genetics of multifactorial traits (diseases). The software allows creating and maintaining a family-oriented database and using the inputted information to calculate relative risk of disease, heritability, and correlations between several diseases or forms, with both actual frequency of the trait (prevalence) and probability of new cases (incidence). If appropriate data on sibships or nuclear families are available, one can calculate an empirical estimation of the risk of repeated cases of the disease in a family in relation to family anamnesis in different methods of sampling, sex-related morbidity, and varying age of onset. The database may also be used independently as a card index. The software allows one to represent pedigrees graphically, highlighting the desired set of traits. An application program, EPID, was developed, aimed at calculation and graphical presentation of age-related estimations of prevalence and incidence, as well as of the population risk of an individual to develop a disease within a time interval from birth to a certain age (accumulated morbidity). © 1996 MAHK Hayka/Interperiodica Publishing.

Duke Scholars

Author Svetlana Ukraintseva Social Science Research Institute