Effect of gastroesophageal reflux disease on sleep disorders: a Mendelian randomization study

BackgroundRecently observational studies have consistently shown an association between gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and sleep disorders. In this study, Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed to determine the genetic causal relationship between GERD and the risk of sleep disorders. MethodsThe summary statistics of GERD and sleep disorders were obtained through large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS). In addition to exploring sleep disorders, a deeper analysis was conducted on some major categories of sleep disorders such as sleep apnoea and insomnia. Various MR analysis methods including inverse-variance weighted (IVW), MR Egger, weighted median, simple mode, and weighted mode were performed, and the results of IVW were taken as the primary results. In addition, sensitivity analyses including heterogeneity test and pleiotropy test were also performed to test the robustness of the MR results. ResultsAfter removing the ineligible SNPs and the palindromic SNPs, IVW detected a significant effect of GERD on sleep disorders (OR = 1.436, 95% CI: 1.309-1.576, p = 2.099E-14) and sleep apnoea (OR = 1.486, 95% CI: 1.341-1.647, p = 4.409E-14). However, there was no genetic causality in the effect of GERD on insomnia (IVW OR = 1.146, 95% CI: 0.877-1.498, p = 0.319). Furthermore, the heterogeneity test and pleiotropy test found no evidence of bias, which indicated the results were robust. ConclusionsOur study found that the presence of GERD increased the risk of sleep disorders and sleep apnoea, but not the risk of insomnia. Further research is needed to identify the specific mechanisms of causal relationships.