{Reference Type}: Journal Article
{Title}: The effect of heavy smoking on retirement risk: A mendelian randomisation analysis.
{Author}: Gaggero A;Ajnakina O;Zucchelli E;Hackett RA;
{Journal}: Addict Behav
{Volume}: 157
{Issue}: 0
{Year}: 2024 Jun 17
{Factor}: 4.591
{DOI}: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2024.108078
{Abstract}: <B>OBJECTIVE: </B>The extent to which heavy smoking and retirement risk are causally related remains to be determined. To overcome the endogeneity of heavy smoking behaviour, we employed a novel approach by exploiting the genetic predisposition to heavy smoking, as measured with a polygenic risk score (PGS), in a Mendelian Randomisation approach.<BR><B>METHODS: </B>8164 participants (mean age 68.86 years) from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing had complete data on smoking behaviour, employment and a heavy smoking PGS. Heavy smoking was indexed as smoking at least 20 cigarettes a day. A time-to-event Mendelian Randomization (MR) analysis, using a complementary log-log (cloglog) link function, was employed to model the retirement risk.<BR><B>RESULTS: </B>Our results show that being a heavy smoker significantly increases the risk of retirement (β = 1.324, standard error = 0.622, p < 0.05). Results were robust to a battery of checks and a placebo analysis considering the never-smokers.<BR><B>CONCLUSIONS: </B>Overall, our findings support a causal pathway from heavy smoking to earlier retirement.