Mendelian randomization study supports positive bidirectional causal relationships between genetically predicted insomnia symptom and liability to benign prostatic hyperplasia

Background Sleep quality may be related to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), however causal associations have not been established.

This study aimed to evaluate causal relationships between six sleep traits ([i] day time napping, [ii] daytime sleepiness, [iii] insomnia, [iv] long sleep duration, [v] short sleep duration, and [vi] sleep duration per hour) and BPH through a bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) study.

Methods Genome-wide association summary statistics of sleep traits and BPH were downloaded from public databases.

Inverse variance weighting (IVW) was used as the main approach for causal inference.

For causal estimates identified by IVW, various sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the reliability of the results: (i) four additional MR methods to complement IVW; (ii) Cochran’s Q test to assess heterogeneity; (iii) MR-Egger intercept test and MR-PRESSO global test to assess horizontal pleiotropy; and (iv) leave-one-out method to assess stability.

Results Forward MR analyses indicated that genetically predicted insomnia symptom significantly increased BPH risk (OR = 1.267, 95% CI: 1.003–1.601, P  = 0.048), while reverse MR analyses identified that genetically predicted liability to BPH significantly increased the incidence of insomnia (OR = 1.026, 95% CI: 1.000-1.052, P  = 0.048).

In a replicate MR analysis based on summary statistics including exclusively male participants, the finding of increased risk of BPH due to genetically predicted insomnia symptom was further validated (OR = 1.488, 95% CI: 1.096–2.022, P  = 0.011).

No further causal links were identified.

In addition, sensitivity tests demonstrated the reliability of the MR results.

Conclusion This study identified that a higher prevalence of genetically predicted insomnia symptoms may significantly increase the risk of BPH, while genetically predicted liability to BPH may in turn increase the incidence of insomnia symptom.

Therefore, improving sleep quality and reducing the risk of insomnia could be a crucial approach for the prevention of BPH.