Evidence mapPaperPMID 40264243Full record

ArticleHuman genomics2025

Assessing the causal effects of type 2 diabetes and obesity-related traits on COVID-19 severity.

Jieun Seo, Gaeun Kim, Seunghwan Park, Aeyeon Lee, Liming Liang, Taesung Park, Wonil Chung

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Article in Human genomics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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3 · Its place in the literature

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1 citing paper in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Jieun Seo *Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Soongsil University, Seoul, 06978, Korea.
Gaeun Kim *Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Soongsil University, Seoul, 06978, Korea.
Seunghwan ParkDepartment of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Soongsil University, Seoul, 06978, Korea.
Aeyeon LeeDepartment of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Soongsil University, Seoul, 06978, Korea.
Liming LiangDepartment of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Taesung ParkDepartment of Statistics, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Korea. tspark@stats.snu.ac.kr.ORCID 0000-0002-8294-590X
Wonil ChungDepartment of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Soongsil University, Seoul, 06978, Korea. wchung@ssu.ac.kr.ORCID 0000-0002-5766-6247

Funding

NRF grant funded by the Korea government 2021M3E5E3081425
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundType 2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity-related traits are highly comorbid with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but their causal relationships with disease severity remain unclear. While recent Mendelian randomization (MR) studies suggest a causal link between obesity-related traits and COVID-19 severity, findings regarding T2D are inconsistent, particularly when adjusting for body mass index (BMI). This study aims to clarify these relationships.

methodsWe applied various MR methods to assess the causal effects of BMI-adjusted T2D (T2DadjBMI) and obesity-related traits (BMI, waist circumference, and waist-hip ratio) on COVID-19 severity. Genetic instruments were obtained from large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS), including 898K participants for T2D and 2M for COVID-19 severity. To address potential bias from sample overlap, we conducted large-scale simulations comparing MR results from overlapping and independent samples.

resultsOur MR analysis identified a significant causal relationship between T2DadjBMI and increased COVID-19 severity (OR = 1.057, 95% CI = 1.012-1.105). Obesity-related traits were also causally associated with COVID-19 severity. Simulations confirmed that MR results remained robust to sample overlap, demonstrating consistency between overlapping and independent datasets.

conclusionsThese findings highlight the causal role of T2D and obesity-related traits in COVID-19 severity, emphasizing the need for targeted prevention and management strategies for high-risk populations. The robustness of our MR analysis, even in the presence of sample overlap, strengthens the reliability of these causal inferences.

Indexed as

COVID-19Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2ObesityBody Mass IndexFemaleGenome-Wide Association StudyHumansMaleMendelian Randomization AnalysisPolymorphism, Single NucleotideSARS-CoV-2Severity of Illness IndexWaist CircumferenceWaist-Hip RatioCasual associationCOVID-19Mendelian randomizationObesityT2D

Identifiers

PMID40264243
PMCPMC12016339

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.