ArticleInternational journal of epidemiology2019
Elucidating the role of maternal environmental exposures on offspring health and disease using two-sample Mendelian randomization.
Article in International journal of epidemiology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
54 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 106 citations in OpenAlex.
- Large-scale GWAS of strabismus identifies risk loci and provides support for a link with maternal smoking.Nature communications · 2025Pooled it
- Methodological approaches, challenges, and opportunities in the application of Mendelian randomisation to lifecourse epidemiology: A systematic literature review.European journal of epidemiology · 2024Pooled it
- Mendelian randomization study of maternal coffee consumption and its influence on birthweight, stillbirth, miscarriage, gestational age and pre-term birth.International journal of epidemiology · 2023Pooled it
- Genetic meta-analysis of twin birth weight shows high genetic correlation with singleton birth weight.Human molecular genetics · 2021Pooled it
- Investigating the causal effect of maternal vitamin B12 and folate levels on offspring birthweight.International journal of epidemiology · 2021Pooled it
- Evidence of detrimental effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on offspring birthweight and neurodevelopment from a systematic review of quasi-experimental studies.International journal of epidemiology · 2021Pooled it
- Mendelian randomisation approaches to the study of prenatal exposures: A systematic review.Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology · 2021Pooled it
- Multivariate GWAS framework for family trios with parental phenotypes to control dynastic effects.BMC bioinformatics · 2026Article
- Genome-wide association analyses of gestational phenotypes identify context-specific genetic effects.Nature genetics · 2026Article
- Disentangling the relationship between intrauterine exposures and offspring growth in mid-childhood.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Association between maternal MTHFR and MTRR gene polymorphisms and the risk of congenital heart disease in newborns.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Utilizing offspring genotype-by-proxy Mendelian randomization to investigate the causal effect of offspring perinatal traits on maternal health.International journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Maternal migraine and offspring ADHD: triangulating the evidence.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- A structural mean modeling Mendelian randomization approach to investigate the lifecourse effect of adiposity: applied and methodological considerations.American journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Causal effects of maternal BMI on pregnancy outcomes: a Mendelian randomisation study investigating the mediating role of blood counts.Frontiers in genetics · 2026Article
- Genomic approaches to understanding pregnancy phenotypes and birth outcomes and their links with long-term maternal and offspring health-the value of distinguishing maternal and fetal genetic effects.Frontiers in genetics · 2026Review
- Improving estimation efficiencies for family-based GWAS by integrating large external data.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Investigating the Relationship Between Maternal Smoking During Pregnancy and Offspring Handedness: Extending the Proxy Gene-by-Environment Mendelian Randomization Study Design to Include Polygenic Risk Scores.Behavior genetics · 2025Article
- The genetics of low and high birthweight and their relationship with cardiometabolic disease.Diabetologia · 2025Article
- Woolf et al's "GWAS by subtraction" is not useful for cross-generational Mendelian randomization studies.BMC research notes · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThere is considerable interest in estimating the causal effect of a range of maternal environmental exposures on offspring health-related outcomes. Previous attempts to do this using Mendelian randomization methodologies have been hampered by the paucity of epidemiological cohorts with large numbers of genotyped mother-offspring pairs.
methodsWe describe a new statistical model that we have created which can be used to estimate the effect of maternal genotypes on offspring outcomes conditional on offspring genotype, using both individual-level and summary-results data, even when the extent of sample overlap is unknown.
resultsWe describe how the estimates obtained from our method can subsequently be used in large-scale two-sample Mendelian randomization studies to investigate the causal effect of maternal environmental exposures on offspring outcomes. This includes studies that aim to assess the causal effect of in utero exposures related to fetal growth restriction on future risk of disease in offspring. We illustrate our framework using examples related to offspring birthweight and cardiometabolic disease, although the general principles we espouse are relevant for many other offspring phenotypes.
conclusionsWe advocate for the establishment of large-scale international genetics consortia that are focused on the identification of maternal genetic effects and committed to the public sharing of genome-wide summary-results data from such efforts. This information will facilitate the application of powerful two-sample Mendelian randomization studies of maternal exposures and offspring outcomes.
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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.