Education counteracts the genetic risk of Alzheimer’s disease without an interaction effect

Frontiers in Public Health

Public Health

Ruilin Liu¹  Shuiyuan Xiao²  Chengcheng Zhang²  Ying Zheng²  Xuping Li²  Yushi Zhang³ 

[1] The Clinical Center for Gene Diagnosis and Therapy, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Central South University, Changsha, China;Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China;Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, United States;

关键词: education;    genetic risk;    Alzheimer’s disease;    dementia;    polygenic risk score;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpubh.2023.1178017

 received in 2023-03-02, accepted in 2023-07-31,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is a major cause of disability and mortality in older adults. This study aimed to investigate the association of AD with education and genetic factors.MethodsWe conducted a prospective cohort study using data from the UK Biobank. Genetic risk was assessed using a polygenic risk score for AD. The educational level was categorized as either low, intermediate, or high. AD was defined using the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th revision. Logistic regression models were used to investigate the independent and combined effects of genetic factors and educational levels on the risk of AD.ResultsWe included 318,535 participants in this study (age: 56.53 ± 8.09 years; male: 44.81%). Compared with a low genetic risk, a high genetic risk was associated with a significantly greater risk of AD (OR = 7.09, 95% CI: 6.09–8.26). A high educational level was associated with a 30% lower risk of AD compared with a low educational level (OR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.60–0.81). Combining genetic risk and education categories, individuals with a low genetic risk and high educational level had a more than 90% (OR = 0.09, 95% CI: 0.05–0.16) lower risk of AD compared to those with a high genetic risk and low educational level. There was no significant interaction between genetic risk and educational level regarding AD risk (p for interaction = 0.359).ConclusionEducation counteracts the genetic risk of AD, without an interaction effect. Increasing education to reduce the incidence of AD is of same importance across individuals with different genetic risk.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Li, Zhang, Zhang, Zheng, Liu and Xiao.

【 图 表 】

FEART_feart-2023-1192406_wc_tfx3.tif