Exploring the relationship between nutrition, lifestyles, genotypes and risks of chronic diseases and mortality

Different dietary intakes and lifestyles have been reported from observational studies to be significantly associated with risk of chronic diseases, all-cause and cause-specific mortality due to cancer, cardiovascular, metabolic, respiratory and digestive diseases. However, whether these relationships are causal remain largely unknown. One way to study causality of an association is using a Mendelian randomization (MR) approach that employs genetic variants as proxies for risk factors to minimize confounding and misleading causation in observational data.
Therefore the aim of this study is to identify genetic determinants associated with nutrition and lifestyles in the general population, and to investigate causal associations between dietary intakes, lifestyles and health outcomes including chronic diseases, all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality. This study is expected to last for 36 months. Our research will provide evidence for causal effects of dietary intakes and lifestyles on risks of chronic diseases and mortality. Evidence-based recommendations will also be generated accordingly for the general population.