Validating biomarkers and models for epigenetic inference of alcohol consumption from blood.
Silvana C E MaasAthina VidakiAlexander TeumerRicardo CosteiraRory WilsonJenny van DongenMarian BeekmanUwe VölkerHans J GrabeSonja KunzeKarl-Heinz LadwigJoyce B J van MeursAndré G UitterlindenTrudy VoortmanDorret I BoomsmaP Eline SlagboomDiana van HeemstCarla J H van der KallenLeonard H van den BergMelanie WaldenbergerHenry VölzkeAnnette PetersJordana T BellM Arfan IkramMohsen GhanbariManfred KayserPublished in: Clinical epigenetics (2021)
The outcomes of our internal and external validation demonstrate that the previously reported prediction models suffer from both overfitting and accuracy overestimation. Our results show that the previously proposed biomarkers are not yet sufficient for accurate and robust inference of alcohol consumption from blood. Overall, our findings imply that DNA methylation prediction biomarkers and models need to be improved considerably before epigenetic inference of alcohol consumption from blood can be considered for practical applications.