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Alcohol and cigarette smoking consumption as genetic proxies for alcohol misuse and nicotine dependence
Sanchez-Roige, S., Cox, N. J., Johnson, E. O., Hancock, D. B., & Davis, L. K. (2021). Alcohol and cigarette smoking consumption as genetic proxies for alcohol misuse and nicotine dependence. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 221, Article 108612. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108612
PURPOSE: To investigate the role of consumption phenotypes as genetic proxies for alcohol misuse and nicotine dependence.
METHODS: We leveraged GWAS data from well-powered studies of consumption, alcohol misuse, and nicotine dependence phenotypes measured in individuals of European ancestry from the UK Biobank (UKB) and other population-based cohorts (largest total N = 263,954), and performed genetic correlations within a medical-center cohort, BioVU (N = 66,915). For alcohol, we used quantitative measures of consumption and misuse via AUDIT from UKB. For smoking, we used cigarettes per day from UKB and non-UKB cohorts comprising the GSCAN consortium, and nicotine dependence via ICD codes from UKB and Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence from non-UKB cohorts.
RESULTS: In a large phenome-wide association study, we show that smoking consumption and dependence phenotypes show similar strongly negatively associations with a plethora of diseases, whereas alcohol consumption shows patterns of genetic association that diverge from those of alcohol misuse.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that cigarette smoking consumption, which can be easily measured in the general population, may be good a genetic proxy for nicotine dependence, whereas alcohol consumption is not a direct genetic proxy of alcohol misuse.
