Causal Roles of Lifestyle, Psychosocial Characteristics, and Sleep Status in Sarcopenia: A Mendelian Randomization Study

Background Many studies reported that lifestyle, psychosocial characteristics, and sleep status related to sarcopenia, although few studies provided evidence of causal relationships between them.Methods The data used in our study were from UK Biobank, FinnGen Release 8, and large genome-wide association study meta-analyses. Two-sample Mendelian randomization was conducted to identify the causal associations of 21 traits of lifestyle, psychosocial characteristics, and sleep status with 6 traits of sarcopenia. Benjamini-Hochberg correction was performed to reduce the bias caused by multiple tests. Risk factor analyses were performed to explore the potential mechanism behind the exposures.Results Mendelian randomization analyses after adjustment proved the causal roles of coffee intake, education years, smoking, leisure screen time, and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity during leisure time in sarcopenia was proven although providing no significant evidence for causal roles for carbohydrates intake, protein intake, alcohol, and sleep status in sarcopenia.Conclusions Our results strongly support that coffee intake, education years, smoking, leisure screen time, and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity during leisure time played significantly causal roles in sarcopenia, which may provide new intervention strategies for preventing the development of sarcopenia. Graphical Abstract

Automated summary

This study conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization and found causal associations between coffee intake, education years, smoking, leisure screen time, and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity during leisure time and sarcopenia. These findings may provide new intervention strategies for preventing sarcopenia.