Abstract
As one of the fatal complications, venous thromboembolism (VTE) is associated with
increased mortality. However, the combined effects of adopting multiple healthy lifestyles
have not been firmly demonstrated. This study was to evaluate the association of combined
healthy lifestyles and genetic risk factors with VTE and to investigate their interaction.
A prospective cohort study from UK Biobank with a total of 442,963 men and women aged
between 38 to 73 years were recruited from 2006 to 2010 and followed up through 2017
or 2018. A polygenic risk score was constructed and a weighted healthy lifestyle score,
including no current smoking, regular physical exercises, healthy diet, and healthy
body mass index, was categorized. During a median follow-up 9.0 years (3,912,396 person-years),
there were 6,736 (172 per 100,000 person-years) incident VTE cases recorded. Among
the participants with an unfavorable lifestyle, 1.80% developed VTE, versus 1.03%
of the participants with a favorable lifestyle (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.58; 95% confidence
interval [CI]: 1.48–1.68). Of the participants with high genetic risk, 2.42% developed
VTE, versus 0.97% of the participants with low genetic risk (HR: 2.60; 95% CI: 2.39–2.81).
Moreover, of the participants with high genetic risk and unfavorable lifestyle, 2.90%
developed VTE, versus 0.66% of the participants with low genetic risk and favorable
lifestyle (HR: 4.09; 95% CI: 3.48–4.79). No significant interaction between genetic
risk and lifestyle factors was observed (p for interaction = 0.727). An unfavorable lifestyle was associated with a substantially
higher risk of VTE, regardless of the genetic risk strata.
Keywords
combined lifestyle - polygenetic risk - venous thromboembolism
