Exposome-wide ranking of modifiable risk factors for cardiometabolic disease traits

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Alaitz Poveda, Hugo Pomares-Millan, Yan Chen, Azra Kurbasic, Chirag J. Patel, Frida Renström, Göran Hallmans, Ingegerd Johansson, Paul W. Franks
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Portfolio 2022
• Subjects: Medicine; R; Science; Q; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08050-1; https://doaj.org/article/e3d9715821e4496c9edb2c7a5851b0dc

Abstract The present study assessed the temporal associations of ~ 300 lifestyle exposures with nine cardiometabolic traits to identify exposures/exposure groups that might inform lifestyle interventions for the reduction of cardiometabolic disease risk. The analyses were undertaken in a longitudinal sample comprising > 31,000 adults living in northern Sweden. Linear mixed models were used to assess the average associations of lifestyle exposures and linear regression models were used to test associations with 10-year change in the cardiometabolic traits. ‘Physical activity’ and ‘General Health’ were the exposure categories containing the highest number of ‘tentative signals’ in analyses assessing the average association of lifestyle variables, while ‘Tobacco use’ was the top category for the 10-year change association analyses. Eleven modifiable variables showed a consistent average association among the majority of cardiometabolic traits. These variables belonged to the domains: (i) Smoking, (ii) Beverage (filtered coffee), (iii) physical activity, (iv) alcohol intake, and (v) specific variables related to Nordic lifestyle (hunting/fishing during leisure time and boiled coffee consumption). We used an agnostic, data-driven approach to assess a wide range of established and novel risk factors for cardiometabolic disease. Our findings highlight key variables, along with their respective effect estimates, that might be prioritised for subsequent prediction models and lifestyle interventions.