Conventions for treated participants change genetic analyses of cardiometabolic traits
Manuscript in preparation, 2026
Participants on lipid-lowering, blood-pressure, or glucose-lowering medication are handled differently across genetic studies of cardiometabolic traits. This work measures how those conventions change heritability, genetic correlation, polygenic score, and gene-environment estimates in UK Biobank, calibrates them against within-person changes at treatment initiation, and derives rules for choosing a convention.