The Causal Relationship Between Atrial Fibrillation and Work and Sleep

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia that can reduce the quality of life of patients. Observational studies have reported that work and sleep are associated with the development of AF, but the causal relationship is unclear.Based on published genome-wide association studies (GWASs), we conducted a two-sample Mendelian Randomization (MR) analysis employing inverse variance weighted (IVW), weighted median, and MR-Egger regression analyses. We chose statistical data of 3 work factors from the MRC-IEU GWAS pipeline and 2 sleep factors from the Sleep Disorders Knowledge Portal as the exposure and the FinnGen study of AF as the outcome.The study revealed that engaging in heavy physical work was associated with an increased risk of AF (IVW OR, 1.787; 95% CI, 1.082-2.853; P = 0.023), and job satisfaction was negatively correlated with AF risk (IVW OR, 0.719; 95% CI, 0.536-0.964; P = 0.028). In addition, jobs that primarily involved walking or standing, short sleep duration (< 7 hours), and long sleep duration (≥ 9 hours) were not associated with AF. The results of the sensitivity analysis are consistent with these trends.The results support a causal relationship between heavy physical labor and increased risk of AF, and that job satisfaction has some protective effect on AF.