ArticleBMJ open2025
Smoking, alcohol and risk of sarcopenia: a Mendelian randomisation study.
Article in BMJ open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Impact of smoking and alcohol consumption on telomere length: A univariable and multivariable Mendelian randomization study.Medicine · 2025Article
- The association between living habits, physical activity level and sarcopenia in chinese older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveObservational studies have found that cigarette smoking increased the prevalence and incidence of sarcopenia, whereas alcohol consumption appeared to decrease the risk. These findings, however, may be susceptible to either confounding bias or reverse causation. We conducted a Mendelian randomisation (MR) study to appraise the causal relation of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption to the risk of sarcopenia.
methodsGenetic instruments associated with cigarette smoking (cigarettes per day) and alcohol consumption (drinks per week) were retrieved from the publicly available genome-wide association data. Individual-level, electronic medical record-linked data on sarcopenia, grip strength and appendicular lean mass were obtained from the UK Biobank. We performed two-sample univariable and multivariable MR analyses to examine the relation of genetically determined cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption to the risk of sarcopenia and its indices.
resultsOne SD increase of genetically determined cigarette smoking was associated with an increased risk of sarcopenia (OR=2.51, 95% CI: 1.26 to 5.01, p=0.001), decreased grip strength (β=-0.63 kg, 95% CI: -1.13 to -0.13, p=0.01) and less appendicular lean mass (β=-0.22 kg, 95% CI: -0.44 to -0.01, p=0.04). Although one SD increase of genetically determined alcohol consumption was associated with decreased grip strength (β=-1.15 kg, 95% CI: -2.09 to -0.10, p=0.02), no statistically significant causal association was observed between genetically determined alcohol consumption and either sarcopenia (OR=0.96, 95% CI: 0.35 to 2.62, p=0.94) or appendicular lean mass (β=-0.23 kg, 95% CI: -0.91 to 0.45, p=0.51).
conclusionsOur findings showed that genetically determined cigarette smoking, but not alcohol consumption, was causally associated with the risk of sarcopenia.
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