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The following is a summary of “Examining socioeconomic differences in sepsis risk and mediation by modifiable factors: a Mendelian randomization study,” published in the May 2025 issue of BMC Infectious Diseases by Stensrud et al. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to examine the causal effect of genetically predicted educational attainment on sepsis and to explore potential modifiable mediators of this relationship.  

They estimated the association between genetically predicted educational attainment and sepsis using summary-level data from recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and evaluated potential biases, including population stratification, dynastic effects, and assortative mating, using summary-level data from a within-sibship GWAS. The inverse variance weighted (IVW) Mendelian randomization (MR) was applied to assess the effect of 1 standard deviation (SD) increase in years of education on sepsis risk and tested the robustness of results using sensitivity analyses, including weighted median, weighted mode, and MR Egger regression. The multivariable MR was also used to evaluate the mediating roles of smoking initiation, alcohol consumption, body mass index (BMI), high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes.  

The results showed that each SD increase in genetically predicted educational attainment (3.4 years) was associated with lower odds of sepsis, with an odds ratio (OR) of 0.72 (95% CI 0.66 to 0.78). The within-sibship genetic instrument supported this finding with an OR of 0.88 (95% CI 0.64 to 1.18). Sensitivity analyses yielded consistent estimates: weighted median OR 0.70 (95% CI 0.62 to 0.80), weighted mode OR 0.70 (95% CI 0.43 to 1.13), and MR Egger OR 0.65 (95% CI 0.50 to 0.85). Mediation analysis indicated that 56% of the association between education and sepsis risk was explained by modifiable or preventable factors.  

Investigators concluded that higher educational attainment was linked to a lower risk of sepsis, with modifiable factors partially explaining this association

Source: bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-025-11130-y