BMI and Well-being in people of East Asian and European Ancestry: A Mendelian Randomisation Study

Jessica O’Loughlin, Francesco Casanova, Amanda M M Hughes*, Zammy Fairhurst-Hunter, Laura D Howe, Jessica Tyrrell*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Previous studies have linked higher body mass index (BMI) to lower subjective well-being in adult European ancestry populations. However, our understanding of these relationships across different populations is limited. Here, we investigated the association between BMI and well-being in people of (a) East Asian and (b) European ancestry in the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) and UK Biobank (UKB), respectively. Mendelian randomisation (MR) methods were used to test the relationship between BMI with (a) health satisfaction and (b) life satisfaction. One-sample MR enabled us to test effects in men and women separately and to test the role of cultural contexts by stratifying our analyses by urban and rural home location in both China and the UK. Further, we implemented a control function method to test the linearity of the BMI-well-being relationship. We found evidence of different associations between BMI and well-being in individuals of East Asian versus European ancestry. For example, a genetically instrumented higher BMI tentatively associated with higher health satisfaction in people of East Asian ancestry, especially in females (ß: 0.041, 95% CI: 0.002, 0.081). In contrast, there was a robust inverse association between higher genetically instrumented BMI and health satisfaction in all European ancestry UKB participants (ß: −0.183, 95% CI: −0.200, −0.165, Pdifference < 1.00E−15). We also showed the importance of considering non-linear relationships in the MR framework by providing evidence of non-linear relationships between BMI and health and life satisfaction. Overall, our study suggests potential setting-specific causality in the relationship between BMI and subjective well-being, with robust differences observed between East Asians and Europeans when considering very similar outcomes. We highlight the importance of (a) considering potential non-linear relationships in causal analyses and (b) testing causal relationships in different populations, as the casual nature of relationships, especially relationships influenced by social processes, may be setting-specific.
Original languageEnglish
Article number251
JournalTranslational Psychiatry
Volume13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Jul 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Exeter Biomedical Research Centre. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. JO, FC and JT are supported by an Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) Springboard award, which is supported by the AMS, the Wellcome Trust, GCRF, the Government Department of Business, Energy and Industrial strategy, the British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK [SBF004\1079]. RMF is supported by a Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship [WT220390]. LDH is supported by a Career Development Award from the UK Medical Research Council (MR/M020894/1); The Medical Research Council (MRC) and the University of Bristol support the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit [MC_UU_00011/1] (AH and LDH). The CKB baseline survey and the first re-survey were supported by the Kadoorie Charitable Foundation in Hong Kong. Long-term follow-up was supported by the Wellcome Trust (212946/Z/18/Z, 202922/Z/16/Z, 104085/Z/14/Z and 088158/Z/09/Z), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0900500, 2016YFC0900501, 2016YFC0900504 and 2016YFC1303904), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91843302). DNA extraction and genotyping was funded by GlaxoSmithKline and the UK Medical Research Council (MC-PC-13049, MC-PC-14135). The project is supported by core funding from the UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00017/1,MC_UU_12026/2, MC_U137686851), Cancer Research UK (C16077/A29186; C500/A16896), and the British Heart Foundation (CH/1996001/9454) to the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit and to the MRC Population Health Research Unit at Oxford University. CKB gratefully acknowledges the participants in the study, the members of the survey teams in each of the 10 regional centres, and the project development and management teams based at Beijing, Oxford and the 10 regional centres. This research was funded in part, by the Wellcome Trust [Grant number WT220390]. For the purpose of open access, the authors have applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.

Funding Information:
This study was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Exeter Biomedical Research Centre. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. JO, FC and JT are supported by an Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) Springboard award, which is supported by the AMS, the Wellcome Trust, GCRF, the Government Department of Business, Energy and Industrial strategy, the British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK [SBF004\1079]. RMF is supported by a Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship [WT220390]. LDH is supported by a Career Development Award from the UK Medical Research Council (MR/M020894/1); The Medical Research Council (MRC) and the University of Bristol support the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit [MC_UU_00011/1] (AH and LDH). The CKB baseline survey and the first re-survey were supported by the Kadoorie Charitable Foundation in Hong Kong. Long-term follow-up was supported by the Wellcome Trust (212946/Z/18/Z, 202922/Z/16/Z, 104085/Z/14/Z and 088158/Z/09/Z), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0900500, 2016YFC0900501, 2016YFC0900504 and 2016YFC1303904), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91843302). DNA extraction and genotyping was funded by GlaxoSmithKline and the UK Medical Research Council (MC-PC-13049, MC-PC-14135). The project is supported by core funding from the UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00017/1,MC_UU_12026/2, MC_U137686851), Cancer Research UK (C16077/A29186; C500/A16896), and the British Heart Foundation (CH/1996001/9454) to the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit and to the MRC Population Health Research Unit at Oxford University. CKB gratefully acknowledges the participants in the study, the members of the survey teams in each of the 10 regional centres, and the project development and management teams based at Beijing, Oxford and the 10 regional centres. This research was funded in part, by the Wellcome Trust [Grant number WT220390]. For the purpose of open access, the authors have applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).

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