Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 9, 2025
08:28
Analysis of Congenital Heart Defects in Mouse Embryos Using Qualitative and Quantitative Histological Methods
Published on: March 10, 2020
7.0K
Association Between Socioeconomic Status and Major Congenital Anomalies: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study.
Daniel Linares1, Qun Miao2,3, Beatriz Luna1
1Genetics Institute, Universidad Mayor de San Andres, La Paz, La Paz, Bolivia.
Birth Defects Research
|September 5, 2025
Summary
Socioeconomic status (SES) and congenital anomalies have a complex relationship. Higher educational attainment may reduce the risk of congenital heart defects (CHDs), but overall evidence linking SES to anomalies remains limited.
Area of Science:
- Genetics
- Epidemiology
- Public Health
Background:
- Observational studies suggest socioeconomic status (SES) influences congenital anomaly risk, but confounding factors obscure the relationship.
- Mendelian randomization (MR) offers a method to investigate potential causal links between SES and congenital anomalies.
- Previous research has been limited by residual confounding in traditional observational studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the potential causal relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) indicators and the risk of major congenital anomalies using Mendelian randomization (MR).
- To analyze the association between educational attainment, household income, and the Townsend Deprivation Index with congenital anomaly risk.
- To address limitations of previous studies by employing MR to minimize confounding.
Main Methods:
- Two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses were conducted.
- Genetic variants for SES indicators (educational attainment, income, Townsend Deprivation Index) were sourced from UK Biobank data via the MRC IEU OpenGWAS database.
- Associations with nine categories of congenital anomalies were analyzed using data from the FinnGen study, with inverse-variance weighted (IVW) as the primary method and Bonferroni correction for multiple testing.
Main Results:
- Higher educational attainment showed a potential association with reduced risk for congenital heart defects (CHDs), respiratory, and musculoskeletal malformations before multiple testing correction.
- A lower Townsend Deprivation Index was unexpectedly linked to a higher risk of congenital digestive tract anomalies.
- After Bonferroni correction for multiple testing, only the association between higher educational attainment and reduced risk of CHDs remained statistically significant (adjusted p=0.02).
Conclusions:
- Evidence for a causal association between socioeconomic status (SES) and congenital anomalies is limited.
- Higher educational attainment is significantly associated with a reduced risk of congenital heart defects (CHDs) after accounting for multiple testing.
- Further research utilizing refined methodologies is necessary to fully elucidate the complex relationship between SES and congenital anomalies.
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