Causal associations between body mass index and mental health: A Mendelian randomisation study
Publication year
2018Number of pages
3 p.
Source
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 72, (2018), pp. 708-710ISSN
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor
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Organization
SW OZ BSI OGG
Journal title
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Volume
vol. 72
Languages used
English (eng)
Page start
p. 708
Page end
p. 710
Subject
Developmental PsychopathologyAbstract
Background: Body mass index (BMI) is correlated negatively with subjective well-being and positively with depressive symptoms. Whether these associations reflect causal effects is unclear. Methods: We examined bidirectional, causal effects between BMI and mental health with Mendelian randomisation using summary-level data from published genome-wide association studies (BMI: n=339 224; subjective well-being: n=204 966; depressive symptoms: n=161 460). Genetic variants robustly related to the exposure variable acted as instrumental variable to estimate causal effects. We combined estimates of individual genetic variants with inverse-variance weighted meta-analysis, weighted median regression and MR-Egger regression. Results: There was evidence for a causal, increasing effect of BMI on depressive symptoms and suggestive evidence for a decreasing effect of BMI on subjective well-being. We found no evidence for causality in the other direction. Conclusion: This study provides support for a higher BMI causing poorer mental health. Further research should corroborate these findings and explore mechanisms underlying this potential causality.
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Academic publications [238426]
- Electronic publications [122508]
- Faculty of Social Sciences [29483]
- Open Access publications [97504]
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