Cited 11 times since 2014 (1 per year) source: EuropePMC Netherlands heart journal : monthly journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation, Volume 22, Issue 4, 1 1 2014, Pages 186-189 Using genetic variation for establishing causality of cardiovascular risk factors: overcoming confounding and reverse causality. Smit RA, Trompet S, de Craen AJ, Jukema JW
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death in developed countries, despite the decline of CVD mortality over the last two decades. From observational, predictive research, efforts have been made to find causal risk factors for CVD. However, in recent years, some of these findings have been shown to be mistaken. Possible explanations for the discrepant findings are confounding and reverse causation. Genetic epidemiology has tried to address these problems through the use of Mendelian randomisation. In this paper, we discuss the promise and limitations of using genetic variation for establishing causality of cardiovascular risk factors.
