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Abstract
Aims:
Married individuals have a lower coronary heart disease (CHD) risk than non-married, but the mechanisms behind this are not fully understood. We analyzed whether genetic liability to CHD may affect these associations.
Methods:
Marital status, a polygenic score of CHD (PGS-CHD), and other risk factors for CHD were measured from 35,444 participants (53% female) in Finnish population-based surveys conducted between 1992 and 2012. During the register-based follow-up until 2020, there were 2439 fatal and non-fatal incident CHD cases. The data were analyzed using linear and Cox regression models.
Results:
Divorced and cohabiting men and women had a higher genetic risk of CHD than married individuals, but the difference was very small (0.023–0.058 standard deviation of PGS-CHD, p-values 0.011–0.429). Both marital status and PGS-CHD were associated with CHD incidence, but the associations were largely independent. Adjusting for behavioral and metabolic risk factors for CHD explained part of these associations (11–20%). No interaction was found between marital status and PGS-CHD for CHD incidence.
Conclusions:
We showed minor differences between the marital status categories in PGS-CHD and demonstrated that marital status and genetic liability predicted CHD incidence largely independently. This emphasizes the need to measure multiple risk factors when predicting CHD risk.
Married individuals have a lower coronary heart disease (CHD) risk than non-married, but the mechanisms behind this are not fully understood. We analyzed whether genetic liability to CHD may affect these associations.
Methods:
Marital status, a polygenic score of CHD (PGS-CHD), and other risk factors for CHD were measured from 35,444 participants (53% female) in Finnish population-based surveys conducted between 1992 and 2012. During the register-based follow-up until 2020, there were 2439 fatal and non-fatal incident CHD cases. The data were analyzed using linear and Cox regression models.
Results:
Divorced and cohabiting men and women had a higher genetic risk of CHD than married individuals, but the difference was very small (0.023–0.058 standard deviation of PGS-CHD, p-values 0.011–0.429). Both marital status and PGS-CHD were associated with CHD incidence, but the associations were largely independent. Adjusting for behavioral and metabolic risk factors for CHD explained part of these associations (11–20%). No interaction was found between marital status and PGS-CHD for CHD incidence.
Conclusions:
We showed minor differences between the marital status categories in PGS-CHD and demonstrated that marital status and genetic liability predicted CHD incidence largely independently. This emphasizes the need to measure multiple risk factors when predicting CHD risk.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Scandinavian Journal of Public Health |
| Early online date | 7 Sept 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 7 Sept 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Pekka Martikainen was supported by the Academy of Finland [grant numbers 308247 and 345219], the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program [grant number 101019329]. Hannu Lahtinen was supported by the Academy of Finland [grant number 345219]. George Davey Smith and Tim Morris were supported by the UK Medical Research Council [grant number MC_UU_00011/1].
Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) 2022.
Research Groups and Themes
- Bristol Population Health Science Institute
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Marital status and genetic liability independently predict coronary heart disease incidence'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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IEU: MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit Quinquennial renewal
Gaunt, L. F. (Principal Investigator) & Davey Smith, G. (Principal Investigator)
1/04/18 → 31/03/23
Project: Research