Testosterone and Socioeconomic Position: Mendelian Randomization in 306,248 Men and Women in UK Biobank

Overview

Journal Sci Adv

Specialties Biology
Science

Date 2021 Jul 29

PMID 34321204

Citations 9

Authors

Sean Harrison

Neil M Davies

Laura D Howe

Amanda Hughes

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Men with more advantaged socioeconomic position (SEP) have been observed to have higher levels of testosterone. It is unclear whether these associations arise because testosterone has a causal impact on SEP. In 306,248 participants of UK Biobank, we performed sex-stratified genome-wide association analysis to identify genetic variants associated with testosterone. Using the identified variants, we performed Mendelian randomization analysis of the influence of testosterone on socioeconomic position, including income, employment status, neighborhood-level deprivation, and educational qualifications; on health, including self-rated health and body mass index; and on risk-taking behavior. We found little evidence that testosterone affected socioeconomic position, health, or risk-taking. Our results therefore suggest that it is unlikely that testosterone meaningfully affects these outcomes in men or women. Differences between Mendelian randomization and multivariable-adjusted estimates suggest that previously reported associations with socioeconomic position and health may be due to residual confounding or reverse causation.

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