ArticleInternational journal of obesity (2005)2022
Causality of abdominal obesity on cognition: a trans-ethnic Mendelian randomization study.
Article in International journal of obesity (2005), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between abdominal obesity and cognitive outcomes in middle-aged adults: a systematic review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Migraines and the association of cognitive impairment: a one- and two-sample mendelian randomization analysis.Dialogues in clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- The mediating role of obesity in the relationship between sleep duration and depressive symptoms: A population-based cross-sectional study.Metabolism open · 2026Article
- Obesity-induced cognitive impairment: Underlying mechanisms and therapeutic prospects.Metabolism open · 2026Review
- Systematic analysis of associations between obesity and memory decline.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome: candidate subtypes and genetic risk factors.BMC medical genomics · 2026Article
- Additive effects of depression and abdominal obesity on cognitive function in middle-aged and older population: evidence from multinational cohorts.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Genome-Wide Study of the UK Biobank Highlights the Importance of the Homeobox-C Gene Cluster in Hip Fracture Risk.Geriatric orthopaedic surgery & rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Causal links between obesity, lipids, adipokines, and cognition: a bidirectional Mendelian-randomization analysis.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Article
- Association of anthropometric parameters with intelligence quotient in early school-aged children: a cross-sectional study in Iran.BMC pediatrics · 2024Article
- Association of waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index with cognitive impairment in middle-aged and elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2024Article
- The Causal Relationship between PCSK9 Inhibitors and Osteoporosis Based on Drug-Targeted Mendelian Combined Mediation Analysis.Calcified tissue international · 2024Article
- Development and validation of a cognitive dysfunction risk prediction model for the abdominal obesity population.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Article
- Spatial analysis of the prevalence of abdominal obesity in middle-aged and older adult people in China: exploring the relationship with meteorological factors based on gender differences.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Is there a role for higher cognitive processes in the development of obesity in humans?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- The relationship between adiposity and cognitive function: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization study in UK Biobank.International journal of epidemiology · 2023Article
- Adiposity impacts cognitive function in Asian populations: an epidemiological and Mendelian Randomization study.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2023Article
- Microvascular and macrovascular complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus: Exome wide association analyses.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- COVID-19 and cognitive performance: a Mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Causality of anthropometric markers associated with polycystic ovarian syndrome: Findings of a Mendelian randomization study.PloS one · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundObesity has been associated with cognition in observational studies; however, whether its effect is confounding or a reverse causality remains inconclusive. This study aimed to investigate the causal relationships of overall obesity, measured by body mass index (BMI), and abdominal adiposity, measured by waist-hip ratio adjusted for BMI (WHRadjBMI), and cognition across European and Asian populations using Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.
methodsWe used publicly available genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data of European ancestry, including BMI (n = 322,154) and WHRadjBMI (n = 210,088) from the GIANT consortium, and cognition performance (n = 257,828) from the UK Biobank and COGENT consortium. Data for individuals of Asian ancestry were retrieved from Taiwan Biobank to perform GWAS for BMI (n = 65,689), WHRadjBMI (n = 65,683), and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE, n = 21,273). MR analysis was carried out using the inverse-variance weighted method for the main results. Further, we examined the overall pleiotropy by MR-Egger intercept, and detected and adjusted for possible outliers using MR PRESSO.
resultsNo causal effect of BMI on cognition performance (beta [95% CI] = 0.00 [-0.07, 0.07], p value = 0.91) was found for Europeans; however, a 1-SD increase in WHRadjBMI was associated with a 0.07 standardized score decrease in cognition performance (beta [95% CI] = -0.07 [-0.12, -0.02], p value = 0.006). Further, no causal effect of BMI on MMSE (beta [95% CI] = 0.01 [-0.08, 0.10], p = 0.91) was found for Asians; however, a 1-SD increase in WHRadjBMI was associated with a 0.17 standardized score decrease in MMSE (beta [95% CI] = -0.17 [-0.30, -0.03], p = 0.02). In both populations, overall pleiotropy was not detected, and outliers did not affect the robustness of the main findings.
conclusionsThis trans-ethnic MR study reveals that abdominal adiposity, as measured by WHR adjusted for BMI, impairs cognition, whereas weak evidence suggests that BMI impairs cognition.
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