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Alcohol Drinking and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: An Instrumental Variable Causal Inference
Author(s) -
Yu Xinghao,
Wang Ting,
Chen Yiming,
Shen Ziyuan,
Gao Yixing,
Xiao Lishun,
Zheng Junnian,
Zeng Ping
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/ana.25721
Subject(s) - mendelian randomization , amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , causal inference , observational study , alcohol consumption , confidence interval , medicine , instrumental variable , genome wide association study , psychology , disease , alcohol , genetics , biology , pathology , gene , computer science , machine learning , biochemistry , genetic variants , genotype , single nucleotide polymorphism
Observational studies have shown alcohol drinking behaviors may be associated with the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but contradictory findings have emerged, and whether such an association is causal is unclear. We here investigate the causal relationship between alcohol consumption and ALS. By leveraging instruments from large‐scale genome‐wide association studies, we performed a comprehensive Mendelian randomization analysis and found alcohol consumption was causally associated with ALS, leading to ∼1.5‐fold (95% confidence interval = 1.4–3.4) higher risk of ALS for each ∼10g/day increase in alcohol intake. Our findings suggest accumulative alcohol consumption may serve as a crucial risk factor in the pathogenesis of ALS. ANN NEUROL 2020 ANN NEUROL 2020;88:195–198