Educational Attainment Decreases the Risk of COVID-19 Severity in the European Population: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study
Observational studies have reported that the severity of COVID-19 depends not only on physical conditions but also on socioeconomic status, including educational level. Because educational attainment (EA), which measures the number of years of schooling, is moderately heritable, we investigated the...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Public Health |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.673451/full |
| _version_ | 1831790138789724160 |
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| author | Masahiro Yoshikawa Kensuke Asaba |
| author_facet | Masahiro Yoshikawa Kensuke Asaba |
| author_sort | Masahiro Yoshikawa |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Observational studies have reported that the severity of COVID-19 depends not only on physical conditions but also on socioeconomic status, including educational level. Because educational attainment (EA), which measures the number of years of schooling, is moderately heritable, we investigated the causal association of EA on the risk of COVID-19 severity using the Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. A two-sample MR analysis was performed using publicly available summary-level data sets of genome-wide association studies (GWASs). A total of 235 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were extracted as instrumental variables for the exposure of EA from the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium GWAS summary data of 766,345 participants of European ancestry. The effect of each SNP on the outcome of COVID-19 severity risk was obtained from the GWAS summary data of 1,059,456 participants of European ancestry gathered from the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative. Using inverse variance weighted method, our MR study shows that EA was significantly associated with a lower risk of COVID-19 severity (odds ratio per one standard deviation increase in years of schooling, 0.540; 95% confidence interval, 0.376–0.777, P = 0.0009). A series of sensitivity analyses showed little evidence of bias. In conclusion, we show for the first time using a two-sample MR approach the associations between higher EA and the lower risk of COVID-19 severity in the European population. However, the genetic or epidemiological mechanisms underlying the association between EA and the risk of COVID-19 severity remain unknown, and further studies are warranted to validate the MR findings and investigate underlying mechanisms. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T14:24:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-47a14d3f07b14db2846b096f9ef67466 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-2565 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T14:24:38Z |
| publishDate | 2021-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-47a14d3f07b14db2846b096f9ef674662022-12-21T18:22:53ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Public Health2296-25652021-06-01910.3389/fpubh.2021.673451673451Educational Attainment Decreases the Risk of COVID-19 Severity in the European Population: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization StudyMasahiro Yoshikawa0Kensuke Asaba1Division of Laboratory Medicine, Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, JapanDepartment of Computational Diagnostic Radiology and Preventive Medicine, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, JapanObservational studies have reported that the severity of COVID-19 depends not only on physical conditions but also on socioeconomic status, including educational level. Because educational attainment (EA), which measures the number of years of schooling, is moderately heritable, we investigated the causal association of EA on the risk of COVID-19 severity using the Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. A two-sample MR analysis was performed using publicly available summary-level data sets of genome-wide association studies (GWASs). A total of 235 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were extracted as instrumental variables for the exposure of EA from the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium GWAS summary data of 766,345 participants of European ancestry. The effect of each SNP on the outcome of COVID-19 severity risk was obtained from the GWAS summary data of 1,059,456 participants of European ancestry gathered from the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative. Using inverse variance weighted method, our MR study shows that EA was significantly associated with a lower risk of COVID-19 severity (odds ratio per one standard deviation increase in years of schooling, 0.540; 95% confidence interval, 0.376–0.777, P = 0.0009). A series of sensitivity analyses showed little evidence of bias. In conclusion, we show for the first time using a two-sample MR approach the associations between higher EA and the lower risk of COVID-19 severity in the European population. However, the genetic or epidemiological mechanisms underlying the association between EA and the risk of COVID-19 severity remain unknown, and further studies are warranted to validate the MR findings and investigate underlying mechanisms.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.673451/fullMendelian randomizationCOVID-19SARS-CoV-2educational attainmentyears of schooling |
| spellingShingle | Masahiro Yoshikawa Kensuke Asaba Educational Attainment Decreases the Risk of COVID-19 Severity in the European Population: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study Frontiers in Public Health Mendelian randomization COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 educational attainment years of schooling |
| title | Educational Attainment Decreases the Risk of COVID-19 Severity in the European Population: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study |
| title_full | Educational Attainment Decreases the Risk of COVID-19 Severity in the European Population: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study |
| title_fullStr | Educational Attainment Decreases the Risk of COVID-19 Severity in the European Population: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Educational Attainment Decreases the Risk of COVID-19 Severity in the European Population: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study |
| title_short | Educational Attainment Decreases the Risk of COVID-19 Severity in the European Population: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study |
| title_sort | educational attainment decreases the risk of covid 19 severity in the european population a two sample mendelian randomization study |
| topic | Mendelian randomization COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 educational attainment years of schooling |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.673451/full |
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