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2021 (English)In: Wellcome Open Research, E-ISSN 2398-502X, Vol. 5, article id 281Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Background: Prior observational studies have reported that higher levels of vitamin D are associated with decreased caries risk in children. However, these studies are prone to bias and confounding so do not provide causal inference. Genetic variants associated with a risk factor of interest can be used as proxies, in a Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis, to test for causal association with an outcome. The objective was to estimate the causal association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) (the commonly measured vitamin D metabolite in blood) and dental caries using a two-sample MR approach which estimates the causal effect of an exposure on an outcome.
Methods: A total of 79 genetic variants reliably associated with 25(OH)D were identified from genome-wide association studies and used as a proxy measure of 25(OH)D. The association of this proxy measure with three outcome measures was tested; specifically: caries in primary teeth (n=17,035, aged 3-12 years), caries in permanent teeth in childhood and adolescence (n=13,386, aged 6-18 years), and caries severity in adulthood proxied by decayed, missing and filled tooth surfaces (DMFS) counts (n=26,792, aged 18-93 years).
Results: The estimated causal effect of a one standard deviation increase in natural log-transformed 25(OH)D could be summarized as an odds ratio of 1.06 (95%CI: 0.81, 1.31; P=0.66) for caries in primary teeth and 1.00 (95%CI: 0.76, 1.23; P=0.97) for caries in permanent teeth in childhood and adolescence. In adults, the estimated casual effect of a one standard deviation increase in natural log-transformed 25(OH)D was 0.31 fewer affected tooth surfaces (95%CI: from 1.81 fewer DMFS to 1.19 more DMFS; P=0.68)
Conclusions: The MR-derived effect estimates for these three measures are small in magnitude with wide confidence intervals and do not provide evidence for a causal relationship between 25(OH)D and dental caries.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
F1000 Research Ltd, 2021
Keywords
25-hydroxyvitamin D, Dental caries, Mendelian randomization, Vitamin D
National Category
Dentistry
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-186645 (URN)10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16369.2 (DOI)34386609 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85111960661 (Scopus ID)
Note
Version 1 of this article: Dodhia SA, West NX, Thomas SJ et al. "Is vitamin D a modifiable risk factor for dental caries? [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]". Wellcome Open Res 2020, 5:281, DOI: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16369.1
2021-08-192021-08-192021-11-10Bibliographically approved