Photo Credit: Nikkytok

Smoking behavior seems to not have a causal effect on CKD, according to a study published in Health Data Science. Researchers used data from the UK Biobank for adults aged 40-69 to examine associations between smoking indices and incident CKD stages 3-5. A potential causal effect was estimated using Mendelian randomization (MR). The causal associations with CKD stages 3-5 were examined in one-sample MR using genetic variants associated with lifetime smoking index among 344,255 UK Biobank participants with White ancestry. Results were validated by a two-sample MR analysis using the CKD Genetics Consortium. Both smoking status and lifetime smoking index were associated with a higher risk for incident CKD in the observational study (HRs, 1.26 and 1.22, respectively). However, in MR analyses, no causal association was seen between lifetime smoking and CKD. “Given the substantial evidence linking smoking to CKD, further mediation analysis is needed to understand the intricate mechanisms between smoking behavior and CKD,” the authors wrote.