Assessment of the Relationship Between Genetic Determinants of Obesity, Unhealthy Eating Habits and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Mendelian Randomisation Study

Abstract

Background: Clinical studies have shown that the onset and exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are related to obesity and dietary behaviours, but the genetic relationship between them is not clear.

Aims: To investigate the relationship between the genetic determinants of obesity, dietary habits (alcohol consumption, intake of sweets, salt intake) and COPD.

Methods: Exposure and outcome datasets were obtained from the IEU Open GWAS project. The exposure dataset includes dietary habits (Salt added to food, Sweets intake, Alcohol consumption), obesity level (represented by body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage (BFP) data sets.). The outcome dataset includes COPD and acute COPD admissions. The collected data were imported into the RStudio software and conducted Mendelian randomisation analysis. Additionally, heterogeneity and horizontal pleiotropy tests were conducted on the data to ensure the veracity of the results.

Results: The results showed that BMI was positively correlated with the risk of acute COPD admission (OR = 1.74, 95% CI 1.39–2.18) and COPD (OR = 1.81, 95%CI 1.41–2.33). In addition, BFP was also a risk factor for COPD (OR = 1.98, 95% CI 1.42–2.77) and acute exacerbation of COPD admission (OR = 1.99, 95%CI 1.43–2.77). The increase of salt, sugar and alcohol consumption will not increase the risk of COPD and the risk of hospitalisation due to COPD.

Conclusion: Therefore, we should strengthen the guidance of diet and living habits of obese patients. For patients with heavier weight and higher body fat rate, they should be instructed to lose weight and fat to prevent the occurrence of COPD. For obese patients with COPD, more attention should be paid to prevent the occurrence of acute exacerbation of COPD in advance.

Keywords:

• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• obesity
• mendelian randomisation analysis
• dietary habits

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Author contributions

Tongyao Sun: conceptualisation, methodology, formal analysis, data curation, writing-original draft, writing-review and editing. Jun Wang: data curation, writing-review and editing, visualisation. Chengsen Cai, Jianjian Yu, Lina Fu, Lei Duan: data curation, writing-review and editing, visualisation. Min Zheng: conceptualisation, methodology, formal analysis, supervision, writing-original draft, writing-review and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethical Statement

Ethics approval was not needed as this study did collect any primary data from human participants or animals.

Disclosure statement of competing interest

The authors declare that they do not have any competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

Supported by Shandong Province Pharmaceutical Health Science and Technology Development Plan Project (202003020981) and Health Commission of Shandong Province (2021Q101).