Genetically predicted education attainment in relation to somatic and mental health

Abstract

A deeper understanding of the causal links from education level to health outcomes may shed a light for disease prevention. In the present Mendelian randomization study, we found that genetically higher education level was associated with lower risk of major mental disorders and most somatic diseases, independent of intelligence. Higher education level adjusted for intelligence was associated with lower risk of suicide attempts, insomnia, major depressive disorder, heart failure, stroke, coronary artery disease, lung cancer, breast cancer, type 2 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis but with higher risk of obsessive–compulsive disorder, anorexia nervosa, anxiety, bipolar disorder and prostate cancer. Higher education level was associated with reduced obesity and smoking, which mediated quite an extent of the associations between education level and health outcomes. These findings emphasize the importance of education to reduce the burden of common diseases.

Causal Effect of Age at Menarche on the Risk for Depression: Results From a Two-Sample Multivariable Mendelian Randomization Study

“…Strikingly often (N = 25), AAM-related SNPs were associated with different fractions of leukocytes (neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, basophils, and eosinophils, but also the total WBC). Based on an additional literature review, we decided that EdAtt ( Magnus et al, 2020 ; Yuan et al, 2021 ) and WBC ( Magnus et al, 2020 ; Sealock et al, 2021 ) also needed consideration in our MVMR model, while other phenotypes, such as alcohol intake and smoking, were considered downstream outcomes of AAM ( Hingson et al, 2006 ; Barrington-Trimis et al, 2020 ).…”

“…BMI and AAM are closely intertwined ( Day et al, 2017 ), as metabolic cues originating from adipose tissue essentially control the reactivation of the reproductive axis during puberty ( Vazquez et al, 2019 ) and BMI also relates to depression ( Bahrami et al, 2020 ). Moreover, the PhenoScanner search revealed that EdAtt and WBC are related to AAM, and both have been implicated in the etiology of depression ( Sealock et al, 2021 ; Yuan et al, 2021 ), rendering these phenotypes likely causes of horizontal pleiotropy in the relationship between AAM and depression. Nevertheless, even when accounting for potential horizontal pleiotropy introduced by these phenotypes, there was a causal effect of AAM on the risk for depression, consistent across different approaches.…”

Educational attainment and mortality in schizophrenia

“…It is also in line with studies using genetically informed methods, finding positive associations between polygenic risk for educational attainment and schizophrenia, 27 although other studies have reported associations in the opposite direction. 28 In order to further elucidate this issue, causal inference methods such as Mendelian randomization have been applied, shedding more light on the complex relation between educational attainment, schizophrenia and intelligence, 29 , 30 although without reaching a final conclusion.…”

Causal relationship between educational attainment and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis: a Mendelian randomization study

“…Furthermore, individuals with RA who were seropositive and seronegative for ACPA or RF were enrolled in this MR analysis. Recently, a comparable analysis has been carried out by Yuan et al used the same GWAS as sources for educational attainment (EA, exposure) and rheumatic arthritis (RA, outcome) [ 31 ]. And they found that RA risk decreased by 50% per SD (approximately 4.2 years) increased in the years of schooling completed.…”