Causal relationship between educational attainment and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis: a Mendelian randomization study

BACKGROUND: Educational attainment is moderately heritable and inversely associated with the risk of rheumatoid arthritis. However, the causality from educational attainment on rheumatoid arthritis remained unknown. Here, we aimed to determine whether educational attainment is causally associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by using Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. METHODS: Summary statistics data for RA were obtained from an available, published meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that included 14,361 RA cases and 43,923 controls of European ancestry. The instrumental variables for educational attainment were obtained from a GWAS meta-analysis that included over 1 million individuals (N = 1,131,881) of European ancestry. MR analyses were mainly performed using the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method. Sensitivity analyses were further performed to test the robustness of the association using the weighted median method, MR-Egger, Cochran Q test, “leave-one-out” analysis and MR-PRESSO test. RESULTS: A total of 387 SNPs were employed as instrumental variables in our MR analysis. Genetically predicted higher educational attainment was associated with a significantly lower risk of RA using the IVW method (odds ratio [OR] = 0.42, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.34–0.52; p = 1.78 × 10(− 14)). The weighted median method and MR Egger regression analysis yielded consistent results. The effect estimate remained robust after the outlier variants and SNPs (associated with the confounding factors) were excluded. “Leave-one-out” analysis confirmed the stability of our results. Additionally, the results suggested the absence of the horizontal pleiotropy. CONCLUSIONS: The MR analysis supported a potential inverse causative relationship between educational attainment and the risk of RA. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41927-021-00216-0.