Mendelian randomization analysis of the causal impact of body mass index and waist-hip ratio on rates of hospital admission.

ABSTRACT: We analyze how measures of adiposity - body mass index (BMI) and waist hip ratio (WHR) - causally influence rates of hospital admission. Conventional analyses of this relationship are susceptible to omitted variable bias from variables that jointly influence both hospital admission and adipose status. We implement a novel quasi-Poisson instrumental variable model in a Mendelian randomization framework, identifying causal effects from random perturbations to germline genetic variation. We estimate the individual and joint effects of BMI, WHR, and WHR adjusted for BMI. We also implement multivariable instrumental variable methods in which the causal effect of one exposure is estimated conditionally on the causal effect of another exposure. Data on 310,471 participants and over 550,000 inpati

SUBMITTER: Hazewinkel AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8784824 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature