Abstract
Epidemiological studies suggest that menopause, especially at an early age, is associated with lower FVC and a higher risk of spirometric restriction. It is, however, unclear if this association is causal because observational studies may suffer from residual confounding even when the analyses are adjusted for known confounders. We therefore performed a large Mendelian randomization (MR) study, which uses genes as instrumental variables and is not affected by classical confounding, to estimate the causal effects of age at menopause on lung function (FVC, FEV1/FVC, FEV1, spirometric restriction and airflow obstruction) using UK Biobank data on 94,742 post-menopausal women.
In contrast to observational findings, our MR analyses could not confirm a detrimental effect of early menopause on FVC or spirometric restriction. Furthermore, we show that early menopause is protective for airflow obstruction, with a 15% decrease in risk for women with menopause before the age of 45. This protective effect is less strong in women who had used hormonal replacement therapy and in overweight women. The validity of these MR findings is supported by their robustness across different analyses to control for possible bias due to pleiotropy.
1 Application
Application ID | Title |
19136 | Lung Health: Genes and environment |
1 Return
Return ID | App ID | Description | Archive Date |
2578 | 19136 | Age at menopause and lung function: a Mendelian Randomization study | 27 Oct 2020 |