Associations of Combined Genetic and Lifestyle Risks With Incident Cardiovascular Disease and Cancers

Cardiovascular disease and cancers are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide and is driven by both genetic and lifestyle factors. Recent cohort studies have indicated that adherence to a healthy lifestyle plays a pivotal role in attenuating the impact of genetic factors on risk of several chronic diseases. Lifestyle factors are commonly viewed as mediators between genetic factors and risk of several chronic diseases and that healthy lifestyles might alleviate the disease incident in different genetic risk. Multiple studies have examined the contribution of an individual lifestyle factor or several in the association between genetic risk and mortality or morbidity of cardiovascular disease and cancer. However, important gaps remain. First, how much an overall lifestyle mediates the association between genetic and health outcomes is debatable. Besides, lifestyle factors are interrelated and few studies have built a healthy lifestyle score to reflect overall lifestyle and to evaluate its impact on the genetic risk in health. Second, limited research has been performed on the interaction and joint associations of genetic and overall lifestyles with health outcomes. Third, it remains unclear whether the findings are consistent among sub-populations of different age, sex, and racial or ethnic groups. In this study, we will examine whether overall lifestyles mediate associations of genetic with incident cardiovascular disease and cancers and the extent of interaction or joint relations of lifestyles and genetic with health outcomes. The project duration is about 3 years. Clarifying the associations of combined genetic and lifestyle risks with incident cardiovascular disease and cancers will help guide population prevention strategies.