Effects of Insomnia on Peptic Ulcer Disease Using Mendelian Randomization

Observational studies indicate that insomnia may increase risk of peptic ulcer disease (PUD). Our purpose is to clarify the possible causal relationship between insomnia and PUD by Mendelian randomization analyses.

We carried out analyses using summary statistics data for genetic variants reported from a GWAS of insomnia (N = up to 1,331,010 individuals) and from a GWAS of PUD (N = up to 456,327 individuals). Three Mendelian randomization approaches were used to explore whether insomnia might play a causal role in PUD, and pathway and functional enrichment analyses were conducted to anticipate the underlying mechanisms.

Conventional Mendelian randomization analysis showed clear causality between insomnia and PUD; 1 SD increased insomnia incident was related to a 19% higher risk of PUD (P = 6.69 × 10^-16; OR, 1.19 (95% CI, 1.14-1.24)). The associations between insomnia and PUD were consistent in the other two analyses performed using the weighted median method (P = 7.75 × 10^-7; OR, 1.16 (95% CI, 1.09-1.23)) and MR-Egger regression (P = 5.00 × 10^-3; OR, 1.27 (95% CI, 1.07-1.50)). Moreover, no evidence indicated a reverse causality between PUD events and insomnia symptoms. Pathway and functional enrichment analyses indicated that the mechanisms of insomnia effect on PUD may be through various ways, such as the immune system and oxidative stress.

This Mendelian randomization study suggests insomnia as a causal risk factor for PUD. The potential mechanisms included may be immune and oxidative stress. These findings indicate that improving sleep quality could have substantial health benefits.