Investigating effect modification between childhood maltreatment and genetic risk for cardiovascular disease in the UK Biobank
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Childhood maltreatment is associated with CVD and may modify genetic susceptibility to cardiovascular risk factors. We used genetic and phenotypic data from 100,833 White British UK Biobank participants (57% female; mean age = 55.9 years). We regressed nine cardiovascular risk factors/diseases (alcohol consumption, body mass index [BMI], low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, lifetime smoking behaviour, systolic blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and stroke) on their respective polygenic scores (PGS) and self-reported exposure to childhood maltreatment. Effect modification was tested on the additive and multiplicative scales by including a product term (PGS*maltreatment) in regression models. On the additive scale, childhood maltreatment accentuated the effect of genetic susceptibility to higher BMI (Peffect modification: 0.003). Individuals not exposed to childhood maltreatment had an increase in BMI of 0.12 SD (95% CI: 0.11, 0.13) per SD increase in BMI PGS, compared to 0.17 SD (95% CI: 0.14, 0.19) in those exposed to all types of childhood maltreatment. On the multiplicative scale, similar results were obtained for BMI though these did not withstand to Bonferroni correction. There was little evidence of effect modification by childhood maltreatment in relation to other outcomes, or of sex-specific effect modification. Our study suggests the effects of genetic susceptibility to a higher BMI may be moderately accentuated in individuals exposed to childhood maltreatment. However, gene*environment interactions are likely not a major contributor to the excess CVD burden experienced by childhood maltreatment victims.
Source: PLoS ONE
Institutions: University of Bristol, MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit
Language: English
Topic: Child Abuse and Trauma
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,805
Awards: G1087756281, Reproductive and cardio-metabolic health, G1377035604, G1653514516, G2291477964, G2538597952, G3233549029, G3601192221, G3909006727, G4257455355, G4390037742, G5260012927, G5371351582, G5470336846, G5607908600, G6049260834, Data mining epidemiological relationships: integration of causal analysis with published evidence, G6285097384, Mendelian randomization to hypothesis-free causal inference, G7053347801, G7194418384, Mediation analysis in life course epidemiology: methodological innovation and application to studies of obesity and cardiometabolic health, G7990456425, Bristol 1st intake 2017 – 4-year PhD Studentship (4th) Scheme: Ms Tessa Forbes; Mr Michael Mosley; Ms Audrys Pauza; Mr Kurt Taylor, G8340598841, G8502142660
OpenAlex ID: W4368360257