No causal association between tea consumption and 7 cardiovascular disorders: A two-sample Mendelian randomization...

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Epidemiology
• Genetic Epidemiology
• Nutritional Epidemiology

Background:

• Conflicting findings exist regarding the relationship between habitual tea consumption and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.
• Previous observational studies have yielded inconsistent results, necessitating further investigation into a potential causal link.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the causal association between habitual tea intake and the risk of developing seven common cardiovascular diseases.
• Utilizing a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to leverage genetic variants as instrumental variables for tea consumption.

Main Methods:

• Employed a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to assess the genetically predicted causal effect of tea consumption on CVD.
• Evaluated associations with atrial fibrillation, hypertension, acute myocardial infarction, coronary atherosclerosis, peripheral vascular disease, angina, and heart failure.
• Utilized multiple MR methods, including Inverse Variance Weighted (IVW), and conducted sensitivity analyses like leave-one-out to ensure robustness.

Main Results:

• The primary IVW analysis revealed no statistically significant causal association between habitual tea consumption and the risk of any of the seven studied cardiovascular diseases.
• Sensitivity analyses, including MR-Egger and weighted median methods, corroborated the primary findings, indicating robust results.
• No significant causal link was detected for atrial fibrillation, hypertension, acute myocardial infarction, coronary atherosclerosis, peripheral vascular disease, angina, or heart failure.

Conclusions:

• This Mendelian randomization study provides no genetic evidence to support a causal relationship between habitual tea intake and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
• The findings suggest that observed associations in previous studies may not reflect a direct causal effect of tea consumption on CVD risk.