ArticleBMC medicine2018
Adult height and risk of 50 diseases: a combined epidemiological and genetic analysis.
Article in BMC medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 67 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
67 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 105 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Risk factors for prostate cancer: An umbrella review of prospective observational studies and mendelian randomization analyses.PLoS medicine · 2024Pooled it
- A multi-population phenome-wide association study of genetically-predicted height in the Million Veteran Program.PLoS genetics · 2022Pooled it
- Systematic review of Mendelian randomization studies on risk of cancer.BMC medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Causal associations of thyroid function and dysfunction with overall, breast and thyroid cancer: A two-sample Mendelian randomization study.International journal of cancer · 2020Pooled it
- Association of maternal height with pregnancy complications: Analyses of two cohorts.Pregnancy (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2026Article
- The association between adult height and the incidence of diabetes in a Japanese working population: a prospective study exploring the possible role of cohort effects.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Unraveling the genetic links between stature and disease in East Asians: A multi-biobank genetic correlation and risk prediction study.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Independent association of leg-height ratio with 15 cardiometabolic diseases.Cardiovascular diabetology · 2026Article
- Life course adiposity and risk of incident osteoporosis: a prospective cohort study from the UK Biobank.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Article
- A systems radiology approach towards personalised prevention in persons who smoke.European radiology · 2025Article
- The genetic basis of human height.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2025Review
- Genetically predicted immune cells mediates the association between hepatocellular carcinoma and inflammatory proteins: a Mendelian randomization study.Discover oncology · 2025Article
- Pregnancy in a woman with extreme short stature and low body weight secondary to a collagen VI-related muscular dystrophy.Obstetric medicine · 2025Article
- Insights from the largest diverse ancestry sex-specific disease map for genetically predicted height.NPJ genomic medicine · 2025Article
- Association Between Early-Life and Premorbid Measurements of Body Composition and Risk of Motor Neuron Disease: A Prospective Cohort Study in the UK Biobank.Annals of neurology · 2025Article
- Effects of childhood and adult height on later life cardiovascular disease risk estimated through Mendelian randomization.European journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Association between adult body structure and stroke risk.Hypertension research : official journal of the Japanese Society of Hypertension · 2025Article
- Development and validation of a polygenic risk score for height in a Greek cohort: Association with blood pressure measurements.Frontiers in genetics · 2025Article
- Gene prediction of immune cells association between gut microbiota and colorectal cancer: a Mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
7 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAdult height is associated with risk of several diseases, but the breadth of such associations and whether these associations are primary or due to confounding are unclear. We examined the association of adult height with 50 diseases spanning multiple body systems using both epidemiological and genetic approaches, the latter to identify un-confounded associations and possible underlying mechanisms.
methodsWe examined the associations for adult height (using logistic regression adjusted for potential confounders) and genetically determined height (using a two-sample Mendelian randomisation approach with height-associated genetic variants as instrumental variables) in 417,434 individuals of white ethnic background participating in the UK Biobank. We undertook pathway analysis of height-associated genes to identify biological processes that could link height and specific diseases.
resultsHeight was associated with 32 diseases and genetically determined height associated with 12 diseases. Of these, 11 diseases showed a concordant association in both analyses, with taller height associated with reduced risks of coronary artery disease (odds ratio per standard deviation (SD) increase in height OR
conclusionsAdult height is associated with risk of a range of diseases. We confirmed previously reported height associations for coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation, venous thromboembolism, intervertebral disc disorder, hip fracture and cancer and identified potential novel associations for gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, diaphragmatic hernia and vasculitis. Multiple biological mechanisms affecting height may affect the risks of these diseases.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.