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WGCNA categorical trait with more than 2 levels.

Hi there!

Is it possible to use categorical traits (such as ethnicity) in WGCNA analysis? If so, shall we encode them with 0s and 1s? what if the trait is not binary and has several levels? Perhaps use 1, 2, 3,4?

Thank you in advance

wgcna categorical trait
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updated by Agustin Gonzalez-Vicente Agustin Gonzalez-Vicente • written by english.server english.server

2 answers

You can use categorical variables, if it is binary, then you can expressed it as 0 and 1. If it has more levels then you can separate each level as an individual binary variable.

This link may help

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written by Agustin Gonzalez-Vicente Agustin Gonzalez-Vicente

WGCNA works on correlation measure. You can not use categorical variables in WGCNA analysis. You need to have quantitative variables (samples) with a number of samples at least 15 for reliable results.

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written by Renesh Renesh

Thank you @Renesh for your response.

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written by english.server english.server

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