Causal association between hypothyroidism and obstructive sleep apnea: A bidirectional 2-sample Mendelian Randomization study
Year: 2024
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Although previous epidemiological studies have investigated the correlation between hypothyroidism and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the results are controversial and conflicting. Therefore, we used a bidirectional 2-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to infer the causal relationship between hypothyroidism and OSA. We performed a bidirectional 2-sample MR analysis to infer the causal relationship between hypothyroidism and OSA using genome-wide association study (GWAS) data. The hypothyroidism dataset was obtained from GWAS of the IEU database (https://gwas.mrcieu.ac.uk/). The GWAS dataset associated with OSA was obtained from the FinnGen Biobank (https://www.finngen.fi/en). MR results were estimated using the inverse variance weighted, weighted median, MR-Egger, simple mode, and weighted mode methods. Sensitivity analysis was conducted using the heterogeneity, pleiotropy, and leave-one-out tests. Scatter plots, forest plots, funnel plots, and leave-one-out plots were used as visualizations of MR results. According to the inverse variance weighted method, forward MR analysis showed that hypothyroidism was significantly associated with OSA (odds ratio, 1.870 [95% confidence interval, 1.055-3.315]; P = .032). There was no evidence to suggest a causal relationship between OSA and the risk of hypothyroidism in reverse MR analysis (P = .881). Furthermore, sensitivity analysis further confirmed the robust results. Our bidirectional 2-sample MR analysis revealed that hypothyroidism could increase the risk of developing OSA but did not provide evidence to support a causal relationship of OSA on hypothyroidism. Thus, patients with hypothyroidism should strengthen their sleep quality monitoring, and further research is needed to understand the role of hypothyroidism effects on OSA.
Source: Medicine
Authors: Ning Lu, Bi Chen, Pingli Liu, Cuocuo Wang, Zhaojun Lu, Shengli Li
Language: English
Subfield: Physiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,950
OpenAlex ID: W4403663010