Author Correction: Testing the key assumption of heritability estimates based on genome-wide genetic relatedness (Journal of Human Genetics, (2014), 59, 6, (342-345), 10.1038/jhg.2014.14)

In the original paper, we used the variable “URBRUR08,” from the 2008 survey wave as a measure of childhood urbanicity. Upon further investigation we realized that this variable actually measured Beale urban-rural code during the respondent’s adulthood. Thus, we reran our analysis of the pseudo-heritability of childhood urbanicity using the variable. The original results hold such that even with the first 20 principal components held constant, childhood urban-rural status appears to be ~20% “heritable” in GREML models—a figure that is actually higher than the original estimate reported in the paper (14% controlling for 25 PCs, 15% controlling for 10 PCs, and 29% controlling for two PCs). Meanwhile, the heritabilities of the other phenotypes—height, BMI and education—still do not change when they are residualized on childhood urbanicity. In other words, the original results of the paper do not change.