Causal effects of life course adiposity on temporomandibular disorders: A Mendelian randomization study

Previous studies investigated the associations between obesity and temporomandibular disorders (TMDs), but the evidence for the causal inferences was unclear.

We aimed to investigate the causal link between life course adiposity and TMDs.

Mendelian randomization (MR) studies were performed using genetic instruments for birth weight (BW) (N = 261 932), childhood body mass index (BMI) (N = 39 620), childhood body size (N = 454 718), adult BMI (N = 99 998), body fat percentage (N = 454 633) and TMDs (N = 211 023). We assessed the overall effect of each life course adiposity factor via inverse-variance weighted (IVW), weighted median, and MR-Egger methods and performed extensive sensitivity analyses. Additionally, multivariable MR was conducted to evaluate the direct and indirect effects of childhood BMI on TMDs while accounting for BW and adult BMI, and vice versa.

Univariable MR analyses revealed a causal effect of low childhood adiposity on an increased risk of TMDs (childhood BMI: IVW OR: 0.65, 95% CI: 0.54-0.78, p < .001; childhood body size: IVW OR: 0.56, 95% CI: 0.43-0.73, p < .001). No causal association existed between genetically predicted BW, adult BMI, or body fat percentage and TMDs. In the multivariable MR analyses, the effects of childhood BMI on TMDs occurrence remained significant and direct, even after adjusting for BW and adult BMI (multivariable IVW OR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.61-0.99, p = .048). No pleiotropy and heterogeneity were detected (p > .05).

Low childhood BMI might causally increase the risk of TMDs through a direct pathway.