Genetic Obesity and the Risk of Atrial Fibrillation: Causal Estimates from Mendelian Randomization.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Observational studies have identified an association between body mass index (BMI) and incident atrial fibrillation (AF). Inferring causality from observational studies, however, is subject to residual confounding, reverse causation, and bias. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the causal association between BMI and AF by using genetic predictors of BMI.

Methods

We identified 51 646 individuals of European ancestry without AF at baseline from 7 prospective population-based cohorts initiated between 1987 and 2002 in the United States, Iceland, and the Netherlands with incident AF ascertained between 1987 and 2012. Cohort-specific mean follow-up ranged from 7.4 to 19.2 years, over which period there was a total of 4178 cases of incident AF. We perfo

SUBMITTER: Chatterjee NA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5322057 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature