Weighing Evidence from Mendelian Randomization—Early-Life Obesity as a Causal Factor in Multiple Sclerosis?
نویسندگان
چکیده
In this Perspective, Alberto Ascherio and Kassandra Munger discuss the implications of Richards and colleagues' study exploring the role of early-life obesity in risk of multiple sclerosis.
منابع مشابه
Obesity and Multiple Sclerosis: A Mendelian Randomization Study
BACKGROUND Observational studies have reported an association between obesity, as measured by elevated body mass index (BMI), in early adulthood and risk of multiple sclerosis (MS). However, bias potentially introduced by confounding and reverse causation may have influenced these findings. Therefore, we elected to perform Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses to evaluate whether genetically in...
متن کاملMultivariable Mendelian Randomization: The Use of Pleiotropic Genetic Variants to Estimate Causal Effects
A conventional Mendelian randomization analysis assesses the causal effect of a risk factor on an outcome by using genetic variants that are solely associated with the risk factor of interest as instrumental variables. However, in some cases, such as the case of triglyceride level as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, it may be difficult to find a relevant genetic variant that is not als...
متن کاملEstimating Marginal Healthcare Costs Using Genetic Variants as Instrumental Variables: Mendelian Randomization in Economic Evaluation
Accurate measurement of the marginal healthcare costs associated with different diseases and health conditions is important, especially for increasingly prevalent conditions such as obesity. However, existing observational study designs cannot identify the causal impact of disease on healthcare costs. This paper explores the possibilities for causal inference offered by Mendelian randomization,...
متن کاملDissecting Causal Pathways Using Mendelian Randomization with Summarized Genetic Data: Application to Age at Menarche and Risk of Breast Cancer.
Mendelian randomization is the use of genetic variants as instrumental variables to estimate causal effects of risk factors on outcomes. The total causal effect of a risk factor is the change in the outcome resulting from intervening on the risk factor. This total causal effect may potentially encompass multiple mediating mechanisms. For a proposed mediator, the direct effect of the risk factor...
متن کاملChildhood adiposity and risk of type 1 diabetes: A Mendelian randomization study
BACKGROUND The incidence of type 1 diabetes (T1D) is increasing globally. One hypothesis is that increasing childhood obesity rates may explain part of this increase, but, as T1D is rare, intervention studies are challenging to perform. The aim of this study was to assess this hypothesis with a Mendelian randomization approach that uses genetic variants as instrumental variables to test for cau...
متن کامل