High Blood Pressure and Obesity Are Strongest Risk Factors for Reduced Lifespan

In a study published in Nature  Medicine today, researchers from Osaka University determined that individuals who have a genetic susceptibility to certain traits, such as high blood pressure or obesity, have a shorter lifespan. "The genetic code contains a lot of information, most of it of unknown significance to us," says corresponding author Yukinori Okada. "The goal of our study was to understand how we can utilize genetic information to discover risk factors for important health outcomes that we can directly influence as health care professionals."

To achieve their goal, the researchers analyzed genetic and clinical information of 700,000 individuals from biobanks. From these data, the researchers calculated polygenic risk scores, which are an estimate of genetic susceptibility to a biological trait, such as a risk for disease, to find out which risk factor causally influences lifespan.

"Biobanks are an incredible resource," says lead author Saori Sakaue. "By collaborating with large biobanks in the U.K., Finland and Japan, we not only had access to large amounts of data, but also to genetically diverse populations, both of which are necessary to make clinically meaningful conclusions."

The researchers found that high blood pressure and obesity were the two strongest risk factors that reduced lifespan of the current generation. Interestingly, while high blood pressure decreased lifespan across all populations the researchers investigated, obesity significantly reduced lifespan in individuals with European ancestry, suggesting that the Japanese population was somehow protected from the detrimental effects obesity has on lifespan.

"These are striking results that show how genetics can be used to predict health risks," says Okada. "Our findings could offer an approach to utilize genetic information to seek out health risk factors with the goal of providing targeted lifestyle changes and medical treatment. Ultimately, these approaches would be expected to improve the health of the overall.”