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Updated: Jun 29, 2025

Spontaneous Murine Model of Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer
Published on: February 3, 2023
Association between educational attainment and thyroid cancer: evidence from a univariable and multivariable
Siyue Fan1, Hongzhan Jiang1, Jiali Shen1
1Nursing College, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, China.
Background:
Thyroid cancer and educational attainment have been related in observational studies. It is unclear if these correlations indicate causative relationships.
Methods:
Using large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) datasets, we conducted an univariable and multivariable Mendelian randomization (MR) study to assess a potential connection between educational attainment and thyroid cancer. The inverse-variance weighted (IVW) analysis method is used as our primary outcome. Additionally, we carry out several sensitivity analyses to evaluate the pleiotropy and robustness of the causal estimates.
Results:
Univariate MR study shows 4.2 years of additional education is associated with a 41.4% reduction in thyroid cancer risk (OR = 0.586; 95% CI: 0.378-0.909; P = 0.017). Further multivariable MR analysis revealed that body mass index (BMI) acted as a partial mediating factor in the protective impact of higher educational attainment against thyroid cancer.
Conclusion:
This MR study provided genetic evidence that longer education attainment is related to a lower risk of thyroid cancer. Strategies of expanding education may reduce the burden of thyroid cancer in the world.
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