Education protects against coronary heart disease and stroke independently of cognitive function: evidence from Mendelian randomization.

ABSTRACT:

Background

There is evidence that education protects against cardiovascular disease. However, it is not known whether such an effect is independent of cognition.

Methods

We performed two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses to investigate the effect of education and cognition, respectively, on risk of CHD and ischaemic stroke. Additionally, we used multivariable MR to adjust for the effects of cognition and education in the respective analyses to measure the effects of these traits independently of each other.

Results

In unadjusted MR, there was evidence that education is causally associated with both CHD and stroke risk [CHD: odds ratio (OR) 0.65 per 1-standard deviation (SD; 3.6 years) increase in education; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.61-0.70, stroke: OR

SUBMITTER: Gill D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6857750 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature