Obesity and risk of female reproductive conditions: A Mendelian randomisation study
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Venkatesh S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8806071 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Obesity has been shown to be associated with depression and it has been suggested that higher body mass index (BMI) increases the risk of depression and other common mental disorders. However, the causal relationship remains unclear and Mendelian randomisation, a form of instrumental variable analysis, has recently been employed to attempt to resolve this issue.To investigate whether higher BMI increases the risk of major depression.Two instrumental variable analyses were conducted to test the causal relationship between obesity and major depression in RADIANT, a large case-control study of major depression. We used a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in FTO and a genetic risk score (GRS) based on 32 SNPs with well-established associations with BMI.Linear regression analysis, as expected, showed that individuals carrying more risk alleles of FTO or having higher score of GRS had a higher BMI. Probit regression suggested that higher BMI is associated with increased risk of major depression. However, our two instrumental variable analyses did not support a causal relationship between higher BMI and major depression (FTO genotype: coefficient -0.03, 95% CI -0.18 to 0.13, P = 0.73; GRS: coefficient -0.02, 95% CI -0.11 to 0.07, P = 0.62).Our instrumental variable analyses did not support a causal relationship between higher BMI and major depression. The positive associations of higher BMI with major depression in probit regression analyses might be explained by reverse causality and/or residual confounding.
| S-EPMC4076654 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background: The causal relationship between childhood obesity and stroke remains unclear. Our objective was to elucidate the causal relationship between childhood obesity and the risk of stroke and its subtypes by performing Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses. Methods: Genetic instruments for childhood obesity were obtained from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 13,848 European participants. Summary level data for stroke, intracerebral haemorrhage, ischaemic stroke (IS), and its subtypes were evaluated using the MEGASTROKE GWAS dataset, which included 446,696 European adults. Inverse-variance weighting, weighted-median analysis, MR-Egger regression, MR Pleiotropy RESidual Sum and Outlier test (MR-PRESSO), and MR-Robust Adjusted Profile Score were applied in this MR analysis. The leave-one-out sensitivity test, MR-PRESSO Global test, and Cochran's Q test were conducted to confirm the accuracy and robustness of our results. Results: Genetic evaluations revealed that childhood obesity was associated with a higher risk of stroke (OR = 1.04, 95%CI: 1.01-1.07, p = 0.005) and IS (OR = 1.05, 95%CI: 1.02-1.08, p = 0.003), but not with intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH, OR = 0.93, 95%CI: 0.80-1.09, p = 0.39). In the subtype analysis, childhood obesity was also associated with large artery stroke (LAS, OR = 1.12, 95%CI: 1.02-1.22, p = 0.016) but not with cardioembolic stroke (OR = 1.06, 95%CI: 0.96-1.18, p = 0.21) and small vessel stroke (OR = 1.06, 95%CI: 0.98-1.15, p = 0.17). These results were stable in the sensitivity analysis and remained significant after Bonferroni correction. Conclusion: Our study provides evidence that childhood obesity is associated with a higher risk of stroke, IS, and LAS. The prevention of stroke, especially IS and LAS, should be promoted in populations with childhood obesity.
| S-EPMC8638161 | biostudies-literature
Project description:It remains unclear whether the association between obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), a form of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), and atrial fibrillation (AF) is causal or mediated by shared co-morbidities such as obesity. Existing observational studies are conflicting and limited by confounding and reverse causality. We performed Mendelian randomisation (MR) to investigate the causal relationships between SDB, body mass index (BMI) and AF. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with SDB (n = 29) and BMI (n = 453) were selected as instrumental variables to investigate the effects of SDB and BMI on AF, using genetic association data on 55,114 AF cases and 482,295 controls. Primary analysis was conducted using inverse-variance weighted MR. Higher genetically predicted SDB and BMI were associated with increased risk of AF (OR per log OR increase in snoring liability 2.09 (95% CI 1.10-3.98), p = 0.03; OR per 1-SD increase in BMI 1.33 (95% CI 1.24-1.42), p < 0.001). The association between SDB and AF was not observed in sensitivity analyses, whilst associations between BMI and AF remained consistent. Similarly, in multivariable MR, SDB was not associated with AF after adjusting for BMI (OR 0.68 (95% CI 0.42-1.10), p = 0.12). Higher BMI remained associated with increased risk of AF after adjusting for OSA (OR 1.40 (95% CI 1.30-1.51), p < 0.001). Elevated BMI appears causal for AF, independent of SDB. Our data suggest that the association between SDB, in general, and AF is attributable to mediation or confounding from obesity, though we cannot exclude that more severe SDB phenotypes (i.e., OSA) are causal for AF.
| S-EPMC8774383 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Observational studies suggest greater height is associated with increased ovarian cancer risk, but cannot exclude bias and/or confounding as explanations for this. Mendelian randomisation (MR) can provide evidence which may be less prone to bias. METHODS:We pooled data from 39 Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium studies (16,395 cases; 23,003 controls). We applied two-stage predictor-substitution MR, using a weighted genetic risk score combining 609 single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Study-specific odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between genetically predicted height and risk were pooled using random-effects meta-analysis. RESULTS:Greater genetically predicted height was associated with increased ovarian cancer risk overall (pooled-OR (pOR) = 1.06; 95% CI: 1.01-1.11 per 5 cm increase in height), and separately for invasive (pOR = 1.06; 95% CI: 1.01-1.11) and borderline (pOR = 1.15; 95% CI: 1.02-1.29) tumours. CONCLUSIONS:Women with a genetic propensity to being taller have increased risk of ovarian cancer. This suggests genes influencing height are involved in pathways promoting ovarian carcinogenesis.
| S-EPMC5931085 | biostudies-other
Project description:OBJECTIVE:To determine whether body mass index, body fat percentage, and waist circumference influence smoking status and intensity. DESIGN:Mendelian randomisation study. SETTING:UK Biobank, with replication of results from the Tobacco and Genetics (TAG) consortium. PARTICIPANTS:European descent participants from the UK Biobank cohort (n=372?791) and the TAG consortium (n=74?035). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:Risk of current and past smoking, number of cigarettes smoked per day, age of smoking initiation. RESULTS:The Mendelian randomisation analysis indicated that each standard deviation increment in body mass index (4.6) increased the risk of being a smoker (odds ratio 1.18 (95% confidence interval 1.13 to 1.23), P<0.001). This association was replicated in the TAG consortium data (1.19 (1.06 to 1.33), P=0.003). Furthermore, each standard deviation increment in body mass index was estimated to increase smoking intensity by 0.88 cigarettes per day (95% confidence interval 0.50 to 1.26, P<0.001) in UK Biobank and 1.27 cigarettes per day in the TAG consortium (0.46 to 2.07, P=0.002). Similar results were also seen for body fat percentage and waist circumference in both UK Biobank and the TAG consortium data. CONCLUSIONS:These results strongly suggest that higher adiposity influences smoking behaviour and could have implications for the implementation of public health interventions aiming to reduce the prevalence of these important risk factors.
| S-EPMC5953237 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe prevalence of obesity has increased in the United Kingdom, and reliably measuring the impact on quality of life and the total healthcare cost from obesity is key to informing the cost-effectiveness of interventions that target obesity, and determining healthcare funding. Current methods for estimating cost-effectiveness of interventions for obesity may be subject to confounding and reverse causation. The aim of this study is to apply a new approach using mendelian randomisation for estimating the cost-effectiveness of interventions that target body mass index (BMI), which may be less affected by confounding and reverse causation than previous approaches.Methods and findingsWe estimated health-related quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and both primary and secondary healthcare costs for 310,913 men and women of white British ancestry aged between 39 and 72 years in UK Biobank between recruitment (2006 to 2010) and 31 March 2017. We then estimated the causal effect of differences in BMI on QALYs and total healthcare costs using mendelian randomisation. For this, we used instrumental variable regression with a polygenic risk score (PRS) for BMI, derived using a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of BMI, with age, sex, recruitment centre, and 40 genetic principal components as covariables to estimate the effect of a unit increase in BMI on QALYs and total healthcare costs. Finally, we used simulations to estimate the likely effect on BMI of policy relevant interventions for BMI, then used the mendelian randomisation estimates to estimate the cost-effectiveness of these interventions. A unit increase in BMI decreased QALYs by 0.65% of a QALY (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.49% to 0.81%) per year and increased annual total healthcare costs by £42.23 (95% CI: £32.95 to £51.51) per person. When considering only health conditions usually considered in previous cost-effectiveness modelling studies (cancer, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes), we estimated that a unit increase in BMI decreased QALYs by only 0.16% of a QALY (95% CI: 0.10% to 0.22%) per year. We estimated that both laparoscopic bariatric surgery among individuals with BMI greater than 35 kg/m2, and restricting volume promotions for high fat, salt, and sugar products, would increase QALYs and decrease total healthcare costs, with net monetary benefits (at £20,000 per QALY) of £13,936 (95% CI: £8,112 to £20,658) per person over 20 years, and £546 million (95% CI: £435 million to £671 million) in total per year, respectively. The main limitations of this approach are that mendelian randomisation relies on assumptions that cannot be proven, including the absence of directional pleiotropy, and that genotypes are independent of confounders.ConclusionsMendelian randomisation can be used to estimate the impact of interventions on quality of life and healthcare costs. We observed that the effect of increasing BMI on health-related quality of life is much larger when accounting for 240 chronic health conditions, compared with only a limited selection. This means that previous cost-effectiveness studies have likely underestimated the effect of BMI on quality of life and, therefore, the potential cost-effectiveness of interventions to reduce BMI.
| S-EPMC8437285 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Mendelian randomisation studies from Asia suggest detrimental influences of alcohol on cardiovascular risk factors, but such associations are observed mainly in men. The absence of associations of genetic variants (e.g. rs671 in ALDH2) with such risk factors in women - who drank little in these populations - provides evidence that the observations are not due to genetic pleiotropy. Here, we present a Mendelian randomisation study in a South Korean population (3,365 men and 3,787 women) that 1) provides robust evidence that alcohol consumption adversely affects several cardiovascular disease risk factors, including blood pressure, waist to hip ratio, fasting blood glucose and triglyceride levels. Alcohol also increases HDL cholesterol and lowers LDL cholesterol. Our study also 2) replicates sex differences in associations which suggests pleiotropy does not underlie the associations, 3) provides further evidence that association is not due to pleiotropy by showing null effects in male non-drinkers, and 4) illustrates a way to measure population-level association where alcohol intake is stratified by sex. In conclusion, population-level instrumental variable estimation (utilizing interaction of rs671 in ALDH2 and sex as an instrument) strengthens causal inference regarding the largely adverse influence of alcohol intake on cardiovascular health in an Asian population.
| S-EPMC4685310 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:An inverse relationship between allergies with glioma risk has been reported in several but not all epidemiological observational studies. We performed an analysis of genetic variants associated with atopy to assess the relationship with glioma risk using Mendelian randomisation (MR), an approach unaffected by biases from temporal variability and reverse causation that might have affected earlier investigations. METHODS:Two-sample MR was undertaken using genome-wide association study data. We used single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with atopic dermatitis, asthma and hay fever, IgE levels, and self-reported allergy as instrumental variables. We calculated MR estimates for the odds ratio (OR) for each risk factor with glioma using SNP-glioma estimates from 12,488 cases and 18,169 controls, using inverse-variance weighting (IVW), maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), weighted median estimate (WME) and mode-based estimate (MBE) methods. Violation of MR assumptions due to directional pleiotropy were sought using MR-Egger regression and HEIDI-outlier analysis. RESULTS:Under IVW, MLE, WME and MBE methods, associations between glioma risk with asthma and hay fever, self-reported allergy and IgE levels were non-significant. An inverse relationship between atopic dermatitis and glioma risk was found by IVW (OR 0.96, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93-1.00, P = 0.041) and MLE (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.94-0.99, P = 0.003), but not by WME (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.91-1.01, P = 0.114) or MBE (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.92-1.02, P = 0.194). CONCLUSIONS:Our investigation does not provide strong evidence for relationship between atopy and the risk of developing glioma, but findings do not preclude a small effect in relation to atopic dermatitis. Our analysis also serves to illustrate the value of using several MR methods to derive robust conclusions.
| S-EPMC5853158 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundTobacco smoking and alcohol intake have been identified in observational studies as potentially protective factors against developing Parkinson's disease (PD); the impact of body mass index (BMI) on PD risk is debated. Whether such epidemiological associations are causal remains unclear. Mendelian randomsation (MR) uses genetic variants to explore the effects of exposures on outcomes; potentially reducing bias from residual confounding and reverse causation.ObjectiveUsing MR, we examined relationships between PD risk and three unhealthy behaviours: tobacco smoking, alcohol intake, and higher BMI.Methods19,924 PD cases and 2,413,087 controls were included in the analysis. We performed genome-wide association studies to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with tobacco smoking, alcohol intake, and BMI. MR analysis of the relationship between each exposure and PD was undertaken using a split-sample design.ResultsEver-smoking reduced the risk of PD (OR 0.955; 95%confidence interval [CI] 0.921-0.991; p = 0.013). Higher daily alcohol intake increased the risk of PD (OR 1.125, 95%CI 1.025-1.235; p = 0.013) and a 1 kg/m2 higher BMI reduced the risk of PD (OR 0.988, 95%CI 0.979-0.997; p = 0.008). Sensitivity analyses did not suggest bias from horizontal pleiotropy or invalid instruments.ConclusionUsing split-sample MR in over 2.4 million participants, we observed a protective effect of smoking on risk of PD. In contrast to observational data, alcohol consumption appeared to increase the risk of PD. Higher BMI had a protective effect on PD, but the effect was small.
| S-EPMC8609708 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundObservational studies on pubertal timing and asthma, mainly performed in females, have provided conflicting results about a possible association of early puberty with higher risk of adult asthma, possibly due to residual confounding. To overcome issues of confounding, we used Mendelian randomisation (MR), i.e., genetic variants were used as instrumental variables to estimate causal effects of early puberty on post-pubertal asthma in both females and males.Methods and findingsMR analyses were performed in UK Biobank on 243,316 women using 254 genetic variants for age at menarche, and on 192,067 men using 46 variants for age at voice breaking. Age at menarche, recorded in years, was categorised as early (<12), normal (12-14), or late (>14); age at voice breaking was recorded and analysed as early (younger than average), normal (about average age), or late (older than average). In females, we found evidence for a causal effect of pubertal timing on asthma, with an 8% increase in asthma risk for early menarche (odds ratio [OR] 1.08; 95% CI 1.04 to 1.12; p = 8.7 × 10(-5)) and an 8% decrease for late menarche (OR 0.92; 95% CI 0.89 to 0.97; p = 3.4 × 10(-4)), suggesting a continuous protective effect of increasing age at puberty. In males, we found very similar estimates of causal effects, although with wider confidence intervals (early voice breaking: OR 1.07; 95% CI 1.00 to 1.16; p = 0.06; late voice breaking: OR 0.93; 95% CI 0.87 to 0.99; p = 0.03). We detected only modest pleiotropy, and our findings showed robustness when different methods to account for pleiotropy were applied. BMI may either introduce pleiotropy or lie on the causal pathway; secondary analyses excluding variants associated with BMI yielded similar results to those of the main analyses. Our study relies on self-reported exposures and outcomes, which may have particularly affected the power of the analyses on age at voice breaking.ConclusionsThis large MR study provides evidence for a causal detrimental effect of early puberty on asthma, and does not support previous observational findings of a U-shaped relationship between pubertal timing and asthma. Common biological or psychological mechanisms associated with early puberty might explain the similarity of our results in females and males, but further research is needed to investigate this. Taken together with evidence for other detrimental effects of early puberty on health, our study emphasises the need to further investigate and address the causes of the secular shift towards earlier puberty observed worldwide.
| S-EPMC6080744 | biostudies-literature