ABSTRACT

Background:
Many studies reported that lifestyle, psychosocial characteristics, and sleep status related to sarcopenia, while few studies provided evidence of causal relationships between them.

Methods:
The data used in our study were from UK Biobank, FinnGen Release 8, and large genome-wide association study meta-analyses. Two-sample MR was conducted to identify the causal associations of 21 traits of lifestyle, psychosocial characteristics, and sleep status with six traits of sarcopenia. Benjamini-Hochberg correction was performed to reduce the bias caused by multiple tests. Risk factor analyses were performed to explore the potential mechanism behind the exposures.

Results:
MR analyses after adjustment proved the causal roles of coffee intake, education years, smoking, leisure screen time, and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity during leisure time (MVPA) in sarcopenia was proven while providing no significant evidence for causal roles for carbohydrates intake, protein intake, alcohol, and sleep status in sarcopenia.

Conclusions:
Our results strongly support that coffee intake, education years, smoking, leisure screen time, and MVPA played significantly causal roles in sarcopenia, which may provide new intervention strategies for preventing the development of sarcopenia.

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