scholarly journals Mendelian randomisation analysis of the effect of educational attainment and cognitive ability on smoking behaviour

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor Sanderson ◽  
George Davey Smith ◽  
Jack Bowden ◽  
Marcus R. Munafò
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Smoking Behaviour ◽  
Mendelian Randomisation ◽  
Individual Data ◽  
General Cognitive Ability ◽  
Uk Biobank ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Summary Data

AbstractRecent analyses have shown educational attainment to be associated with a number of health outcomes. This association may, in part, be due to an effect of educational attainment on smoking behaviour. In this study we apply a multivariable Mendelian randomisation design to determine whether the effect of educational attainment on smoking behaviour could be due to educational attainment or general cognitive ability. We use individual data from the UK Biobank study (N = 120,050) and summary data from large GWAS studies of educational attainment, cognitive ability and smoking behaviour. Our results show that more years of education are associated with a reduced likelihood of smoking which is not due to an effect of general cognitive ability on smoking behaviour. Given the considerable physical harms associated with smoking, the effect of educational attainment on smoking is likely to contribute to the health inequalities associated with differences in educational attainment.

scholarly journals Diet and general cognitive ability in the UK Biobank dataset

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Piril Hepsomali ◽  
John A. Groeger
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Dietary Patterns ◽  
Red Meat ◽  
Milk Intake ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
General Cognitive Ability ◽  
Food Groups ◽  
Uk Biobank ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Uk

AbstractAccumulating evidence suggests that dietary interventions might have potential to be used as a strategy to protect against age-related cognitive decline and neurodegeneration, as there are associations between some nutrients, food groups, dietary patterns, and some domains of cognition. In this study, we aimed to conduct the largest investigation of diet and cognition to date, through systematically examining the UK Biobank (UKB) data to find out whether dietary quality and food groups play a role on general cognitive ability. This cross-sectional population-based study involved 48,749 participants. UKB data on food frequency questionnaire and cognitive function were used. Also, healthy diet, partial fibre intake, and milk intake scores were calculated. Adjusted models included age, sex, and BMI. We observed associations between better general cognitive ability and higher intakes of fish, and unprocessed red meat; and moderate intakes of fibre, and milk. Surprisingly, we found that diet quality, vegetable intake, high and low fibre and milk intake were inversely associated with general cognitive ability. Our results suggest that fish and unprocessed red meat and/or nutrients that are found in fish and unprocessed red meat might be beneficial for general cognitive ability. However, results should be interpreted in caution as the same food groups may affect other domains of cognition or mental health differently. These discrepancies in the current state of evidence invites further research to examine domain-specific effects of dietary patterns/food groups on a wide range of cognitive and affective outcomes with a special focus on potential covariates that may have an impact on diet and cognition relationship.

scholarly journals Mendelian randomisation analysis of the effect of educational attainment and cognitive ability on smoking behaviour

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor Sanderson ◽  
George Davey Smith ◽  
Jack Bowden ◽  
Marcus R. Munafò
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Smoking Behaviour ◽  
Mendelian Randomisation

scholarly journals Does smoking cause lower educational attainment and general cognitive ability? Triangulation of causal evidence using multiple study designs

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Suzanne H. Gage ◽  
Hannah M. Sallis ◽  
Glenda Lassi ◽  
Robyn E. Wootton ◽  
Claire Mokrysz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Smoking Initiation ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Mendelian Randomisation ◽  
General Cognitive Ability ◽  
Inverse Variance ◽  
Lower Educational Attainment

Abstract Background Observational studies have found associations between smoking and both poorer cognitive ability and lower educational attainment; however, evaluating causality is challenging. We used two complementary methods to explore this. Methods We conducted observational analyses of up to 12 004 participants in a cohort study (Study One) and Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses using summary and cohort data (Study Two). Outcome measures were cognitive ability at age 15 and educational attainment at age 16 (Study One), and educational attainment and fluid intelligence (Study Two). Results Study One: heaviness of smoking at age 15 was associated with lower cognitive ability at age 15 and lower educational attainment at age 16. Adjustment for potential confounders partially attenuated findings (e.g. fully adjusted cognitive ability β −0.736, 95% CI −1.238 to −0.233, p = 0.004; fully adjusted educational attainment β −1.254, 95% CI −1.597 to −0.911, p < 0.001). Study Two: MR indicated that both smoking initiation and lifetime smoking predict lower educational attainment (e.g. smoking initiation to educational attainment inverse-variance weighted MR β −0.197, 95% CI −0.223 to −0.171, p = 1.78 × 10−49). Educational attainment results were robust to sensitivity analyses, while analyses of general cognitive ability were less so. Conclusion We find some evidence of a causal effect of smoking on lower educational attainment, but not cognitive ability. Triangulation of evidence across observational and MR methods is a strength, but the genetic variants associated with smoking initiation may be pleiotropic, suggesting caution in interpreting these results. The nature of this pleiotropy warrants further study.

scholarly journals The Shared Genetic Basis of Educational Attainment and Cerebral Cortical Morphology

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 3471-3481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tian Ge ◽  
Chia-Yen Chen ◽  
Alysa E Doyle ◽  
Richard Vettermann ◽  
Lauri J Tuominen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Uk Biobank ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Cortical Morphology ◽  
Shared Genetic

Abstract Individual differences in educational attainment are linked to differences in intelligence, and predict important social, economic, and health outcomes. Previous studies have found common genetic factors that influence educational achievement, cognitive performance and total brain volume (i.e., brain size). Here, in a large sample of participants from the UK Biobank, we investigate the shared genetic basis between educational attainment and fine-grained cerebral cortical morphological features, and associate this genetic variation with a related aspect of cognitive ability. Importantly, we execute novel statistical methods that enable high-dimensional genetic correlation analysis, and compute high-resolution surface maps for the genetic correlations between educational attainment and vertex-wise morphological measurements. We conduct secondary analyses, using the UK Biobank verbal–numerical reasoning score, to confirm that variation in educational attainment that is genetically correlated with cortical morphology is related to differences in cognitive performance. Our analyses relate the genetic overlap between cognitive ability and cortical thickness measurements to bilateral primary motor cortex as well as predominantly left superior temporal cortex and proximal regions. These findings extend our understanding of the neurobiology that connects genetic variation to individual differences in educational attainment and cognitive performance.

scholarly journals The Shared Genetic Basis of Educational Attainment and Cerebral Cortical Morphology

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tian Ge ◽  
Chia-Yen Chen ◽  
Alysa E. Doyle ◽  
Richard Vettermann ◽  
Lauri J. Tuominen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Uk Biobank ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Cortical Morphology ◽  
Shared Genetic

AbstractIndividual differences in educational attainment are linked to differences in intelligence, and predict important social, economic and health outcomes. Previous studies have found common genetic factors that influence educational achievement, cognitive performance and total brain volume (i.e., brain size). Here, in a large sample of participants from the UK Biobank, we investigate the shared genetic basis between educational attainment and fine-grained cerebral cortical morphological features, and associate this genetic variation with a related aspect of cognitive ability. Importantly, we execute novel statistical methods that enable high-dimensional genetic correlation analysis, and compute high-resolution surface maps for the genetic correlations between educational attainment and vertex-wise morphological measurements. We conduct secondary analyses, using the UK Biobank verbal-numerical reasoning score, to confirm that variation in educational attainment that is genetically correlated with cortical morphology is related to differences in cognitive performance. Our analyses reveal the genetic overlap between cognitive ability and cortical thickness measurements in bilateral primary motor cortex and predominantly left superior temporal cortex and proximal regions. These findings may contribute to our understanding of the neurobiology that connects genetic variation to individual differences in educational attainment and cognitive performance.

scholarly journals The effect of socioeconomic deprivation on the association between an extended measurement of unhealthy lifestyle factors and health outcomes: a prospective analysis of the UK Biobank cohort

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (12) ◽  
pp. e576-e585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamish M E Foster ◽  
Carlos A Celis-Morales ◽  
Barbara I Nicholl ◽  
Fanny Petermann-Rocha ◽  
Jill P Pell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Lifestyle Factors ◽  
Socioeconomic Deprivation ◽  
Prospective Analysis ◽  
Uk Biobank ◽  
Unhealthy Lifestyle ◽  
The Uk

scholarly journals Role of obesity in smoking behaviour: Mendelian randomisation study in UK Biobank

BMJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. k1767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Carreras-Torres ◽  
Mattias Johansson ◽  
Philip C Haycock ◽  
Caroline L Relton ◽  
George Davey Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Smoking Behaviour ◽  
Mendelian Randomisation ◽  
Uk Biobank

Association between major depressive disorder and multiple disease outcomes: a phenome-wide Mendelian randomisation study in the UK Biobank

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 1469-1476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anwar Mulugeta ◽  
Ang Zhou ◽  
Catherine King ◽  
Elina Hyppönen
Keyword(s):  
Major Depressive Disorder ◽  
Depressive Disorder ◽  
Mendelian Randomisation ◽  
Uk Biobank ◽  
Major Depressive ◽  
Disease Outcomes ◽  
Multiple Disease Outcomes ◽  
The Uk

scholarly journals Genetic predisposition to increased serum calcium, bone mineral density, and fracture risk in individuals with normal calcium levels: mendelian randomisation study

BMJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. l4410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustin Cerani ◽  
Sirui Zhou ◽  
Vincenzo Forgetta ◽  
John A Morris ◽  
Katerina Trajanoska ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bone Mineral Density ◽  
Bone Mineral ◽  
Serum Calcium ◽  
Genetic Predisposition ◽  
Calcium Supplementation ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Mendelian Randomisation ◽  
Uk Biobank ◽  
Mineral Density ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Objective To determine if genetically increased serum calcium levels are associated with improved bone mineral density and a reduction in osteoporotic fractures. Design Mendelian randomisation study. Setting Cohorts used included: the UK Biobank cohort, providing genotypic and estimated bone mineral density data; 25 cohorts from UK, USA, Europe, and China, providing genotypic and fracture data; and 17 cohorts from Europe, providing genotypic and serum calcium data (summary level statistics). Participants A genome-wide association meta-analysis of serum calcium levels in up to 61 079 individuals was used to identify genetic determinants of serum calcium levels. The UK Biobank study was used to assess the association of genetic predisposition to increased serum calcium with estimated bone mineral density derived from heel ultrasound in 426 824 individuals who had, on average, calcium levels in the normal range. A fracture genome-wide association meta-analysis comprising 24 cohorts and the UK Biobank including a total of 76 549 cases and 470 164 controls, who, on average, also had calcium levels in the normal range was then performed. Results A standard deviation increase in genetically derived serum calcium (0.13 mmol/L or 0.51 mg/dL) was not associated with increased estimated bone mineral density (0.003 g/cm 2 , 95% confidence interval −0.059 to 0.066; P=0.92) or a reduced risk of fractures (odds ratio 1.01, 95% confidence interval 0.89 to 1.15; P=0.85) in inverse-variance weighted mendelian randomisation analyses. Sensitivity analyses did not provide evidence of pleiotropic effects. Conclusions Genetic predisposition to increased serum calcium levels in individuals with normal calcium levels is not associated with an increase in estimated bone mineral density and does not provide clinically relevant protection against fracture. Whether such predisposition mimics the effect of short term calcium supplementation is not known. Given that the same genetically derived increase in serum calcium is associated with an increased risk of coronary artery disease, widespread calcium supplementation in the general population could provide more risk than benefit.

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