Approved research

Epidemiologic and genetic analyses of aging-associated diseases and mortality

Lay summary

The aim of this project is to identify the potentially modifiable risk factors, such as diet, lifestyle, hormonal, and anthropometric measures, and genetic factors for aging-associated diseases and premature death. To provide insights into biological mechanisms that may link the exposures to disease risk, we will investigate potential mediating roles of biomarkers and blood pressure and other measures on the associations between exposures and disease outcomes. We will also investigate gene-environment interactions and use Mendelian randomisation to determine causality of the exposure-disease relationships. Findings from this project will increase our understanding of the aetiology of aging-associated diseases. This research could lead to improved ability to identify individuals at increased risk of aging-associated diseases and possibly tailored treatment strategies accounting for genetic background. We will conduct epidemiological analyses of the associations of potential risk factors with incidence of aging-associated diseases as well as all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Furthermore, we will perform Mendelian randomisation analyses using genetic variants as proxies for the exposures. We will also use the available genetic data and environmental measures (e.g., diet, lifestyle and anthropometry) to study gene-environment interactions. We plan to use the full cohort.