Using genetic data to better understand effects of socioeconomic and cognitive factors on health and health inequalities

利用遗传数据更好地了解社会经济和认知因素对健康和健康不平等的影响

• 批准号: 2549410
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2549410
• 关键词: Using; genetic; data; better; understand

Background:Much research has suggested that longstanding health inequalities relating to a range of health outcomes exist, with health typically improving as socioeconomic position (SEP) rises. Many countries and transnational governmental organisations have made the reduction of socioeconomic inequalities in health an explicit aim of health policies. To reduce such inequalities and inform reduction initiatives and policies, robust evidence on the associations between socioeconomic factors and multiple health outcomes is needed. However, causal inferences are difficult to make empirically, with existing observational studies subjected to reverse causality and unobserved confounding bias. Apart from socioeconomic factors, existing studies have also suggested an association between cognitive factors and health. Higher cognitive test scores in childhood were found to be associated with better subsequent health, and several potential mechanisms have been suggested to explain this association. Moreover, cognition and SEP are strongly associated across the life course. However, the independent effects of cognition on health and the causal direction of cognition and SEP with subsequent health outcomes remains unclear, as most existing studies have focused on investigating the effects of SEP and cognition separately. Aims and methods:The main aim of this project is to investigate the effects of socioeconomic and cognitive factors on health and health inequalities in the UK, using new descriptive and causal estimation analyses. The project will use data from the UK birth cohorts (1946; 1958; 1970; 2001 cohort), which allows cross-cohort comparison and patterns of association over time to be analysed. To strengthen evidence on establishing causal relationships, both regression analyses and Mendelian randomisation (MR) will be used. By using MR, the genetically-attributable effects of socioeconomic and cognitive factors on health outcomes will be investigated and stronger evidence on causal inference can be made. A multi-outcome approach will be used, which can investigate the effects of SEP and cognition on multiple health outcomes simultaneously and disentangle the potentially different effects on different health outcomes. Previous rotation work on type of education and subsequent health will be incorporated as a chapter of this full project.

背景：许多研究表明，与一系列健康结果相关的长期健康不平等存在，健康通常随着社会经济地位（SEP）的提高而改善。许多国家和跨国政府组织已将减少健康方面的社会经济不平等作为卫生政策的明确目标。为了减少这种不平等现象，并为减贫举措和政策提供信息，需要有关于社会经济因素与多种健康结果之间关联的有力证据。然而，因果关系的推断是很难作出经验，与现有的观察性研究受到反向因果关系和未观察到的混杂偏倚。除了社会经济因素外，现有的研究也表明认知因素与健康之间存在关联。儿童时期较高的认知测试分数与随后的健康状况有关，并提出了几种潜在的机制来解释这种关联。此外，认知和SEP在整个生命过程中密切相关。然而，认知对健康的独立影响以及认知和SEP与随后的健康结果的因果方向仍然不清楚，因为大多数现有的研究都集中在分别调查SEP和认知的影响。目的和方法：该项目的主要目的是调查社会经济和认知因素对英国健康和健康不平等的影响，使用新的描述性和因果估计分析。该项目将使用来自英国出生队列（1946年; 1958年; 1970年; 2001年队列）的数据，这允许跨队列比较和随时间推移的关联模式进行分析。为了加强建立因果关系的证据，将使用回归分析和孟德尔随机化（MR）。通过使用MR，将调查社会经济和认知因素对健康结果的遗传归因影响，并可以对因果推断提供更有力的证据。将使用多结局方法，该方法可以同时研究SEP和认知对多种健康结局的影响，并解开对不同健康结局的潜在不同影响。以前关于教育类型和随后的保健的轮换工作将作为这一完整项目的一个章节。