Screen Time and Chronic Pain Health: Mendelian Randomization Study

Area of Science:

• Genetics
• Epidemiology
• Computational Biology

Background:

• Growing use of electronic devices leads to increased screen time, raising health concerns, including chronic pain.
• Previous studies on screen time and chronic pain have limitations in scope, causal inference, and exploring biological mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate causal associations between different screen time behaviors and chronic pain phenotypes.
• To identify shared biological mechanisms underlying these associations using genetic data.

Main Methods:

• Utilized genome-wide association study data for two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR), reverse MR, and multivariable MR (MVMR).
• Analyzed associations between television watching, computer use, mobile phone use, and chronic pain phenotypes (multisite chronic pain, back, knee, neck/shoulder, hip pain, headaches).
• Employed Summary data-based Mendelian randomization (SMR), transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS), and colocalization analysis to find shared genes and biological pathways.

Main Results:

• Watching television and mobile phone use were positively associated with increased risk for several chronic pain types, including multisite chronic pain (MCP).
• Computer use showed a negative association with MCP, back, and knee pain.
• Integrative analyses identified CEP170 as a key gene potentially mediating the link between computer use and MCP.

Conclusions:

• Screen time is associated with various chronic pain conditions.
• The CEP170 gene may play a role in the biological mechanisms linking computer use and MCP.
• The lack of robust MVMR results necessitates caution regarding potential confounding factors.