A cautionary note on the use of Mendelian randomization to infer causation in observational epidemiology.

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

Who cites it

13 citing papers in PubMed.

1. Abundant Parent-of-origin Effect eQTL: The Framingham Heart Study.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
   Article
2. Using Mendelian randomization as the cornerstone for causal inference in epidemiology.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2022
   Article
3. Diagnostics for Pleiotropy in Mendelian Randomization Studies: Global and Individual Tests for Direct Effects.American journal of epidemiology · 2018
   Article
4. Consistent Estimation in Mendelian Randomization with Some Invalid Instruments Using a Weighted Median Estimator.Genetic epidemiology · 2016
   Article
5. Beyond Mendelian randomization: how to interpret evidence of shared genetic predictors.Journal of clinical epidemiology · 2016
   Article
6. Testing concordance of instrumental variable effects in generalized linear models with application to Mendelian randomization.Statistics in medicine · 2014
   Article
7. Blood pressure in relation to coffee and caffeine consumption.Current hypertension reports · 2014
   Review
8. Next generation analytic tools for large scale genetic epidemiology studies of complex diseases.Genetic epidemiology · 2012
   Article
9. Usefulness of Mendelian randomization in observational epidemiology.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2010
   Review
10. Mendelian randomization in nutritional epidemiology.Nutrition reviews · 2009
    Review
11. Mendelian randomisation and causal inference in observational epidemiology.PLoS medicine · 2008
    Article
12. Relations of inflammatory biomarkers and common genetic variants with arterial stiffness and wave reflection.Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979) · 2008
    Article
13. Mendelian randomization: can genetic epidemiology help redress the failures of observational epidemiology?Human genetics · 2008
    Review

Corrections and comments

• Comment on
  Mendelian randomization: can genetic epidemiology help redress the failures of observational epidemiology?2008

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

Abstract

PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.

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