Socioeconomic status, individual behaviors and risk of anxiety disorders: A Mendelian randomization study.

BACKGROUND

The association between socioeconomic status and individual behaviors (SES/IB) and anxiety disorders has garnered increasing attention, yet the impact of SES/IB on anxiety disorders remains unclear. Therefore, we employed a Mendelian randomization (MR) design to evaluate the causal relationship between SES/IB and anxiety disorders.

METHODS

We conducted a two-sample MR study to assess the causal effects of SES and IB (smoking behaviors, drinking behaviors, sleeping behaviors, habitual physical activity, leisure sedentary behaviors, and reproductive behaviors) on anxiety disorders. A series of filtering steps were taken to select eligible genetic instruments robustly associated with each of the traits. The inverse variance weighted was used for preliminary analysis, and multiple methods were used for sensitivity testing.

RESULTS

After Bonferroni correction and rigorous quality control, we found that educational attainment (odds ratio [OR]:0.75; 95 % confidence interval [CI]:0.69-0.81; P = 9.21E-12), alcohol consumption per week (OR: 1.62; 95 % CI: 1.33-1.97; P = 1.80E-06), insomnia (OR: 1.68; 95 % CI: 1.43-1.97; P = 1.45E-10),age at first birth (OR: 0.59; 95 % CI: 0.50-0.68; P = 1.31E-11),and number of sexual partners (OR: 2.19; 95 % CI: 1.71-2.80; P = 6.64E-10) were causally associated with anxiety disorders.

LIMITATIONS

The subjects included in this study were all of European descent, and whether this finding can be generalized to other populations needs to be further demonstrated.

CONCLUSIONS

The MR Study provides strong evidence that some factors influence anxiety disorders.