Investigating causality in associations between education and smoking: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Lower educational attainment is associated with increased rates of smoking, but ascertaining causality is challenging. We used two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses of summary statistics to examine whether educational attainment is causally related to smoking.

Methods and findings

We used summary statistics from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of educational attainment and a range of smoking phenotypes (smoking initiation, cigarettes per day, cotinine levels and smoking cessation). Of 74 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that predict educational attainment, 57 (or their highly correlated proxies) were present in the smoking initiation, cigarettes per day and smoking cessation GWAS, and 72 in the cotinine GWAS. Various complementary MR techni

SUBMITTER: Gage SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6124626 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature