TY - JOUR T1 - Shared genetic aetiology between cognitive functions and physical and mental health in UK Biobank (N = 112 151) and 24 GWAS consortia JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/031120 SP - 031120 AU - Saskia P Hagenaars AU - Sarah E Harris AU - Gail Davies AU - W David Hill AU - David CM Liewald AU - Stuart J Ritchie AU - Riccardo E Marioni AU - Chloe Fawns-Ritchie AU - Breda Cullen AU - Rainer Malik AU - METASTROKE consortium AU - International Consortium for Blood Pressure GWAS AU - SpiroMeta consortium AU - CHARGE consortium Pulmonary Group AU - CHARGE consortium Aging and Longevity Group AU - Bradford B Worrall AU - Cathie LM Sudlow AU - Joanna M Wardlaw AU - John Gallacher AU - Jill Pell AU - Andrew M McIntosh AU - Daniel J Smith AU - Catharine R Gale AU - Ian J Deary Y1 - 2015/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/11/10/031120.abstract N2 - The causes of the known associations between poorer cognitive function and many adverse neuropsychiatric outcomes, poorer physical health, and earlier death remain unknown. We used linkage disequilibrium regression and polygenic profile scoring to test for shared genetic aetiology between cognitive functions and neuropsychiatric disorders and physical health. Using information provided by many published genome-wide association study consortia, we created polygenic profile scores for 24 vascular-metabolic, neuropsychiatric, physiological-anthropometric, and cognitive traits in the participants of UK Biobank, a very large population-based sample (N = 112 151). Pleiotropy between cognitive and health traits was quantified by deriving genetic correlations using summary genome-wide association study statistics applied to the method of linkage disequilibrium regression. Substantial and significant genetic correlations were observed between cognitive test scores in the UK Biobank sample and many of the mental and physical health-related traits and disorders assessed here. In addition, highly significant associations were observed between the cognitive test scores in the UK Biobank sample and many polygenic profile scores, including coronary artery disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, autism, major depressive disorder, BMI, intracranial volume, infant head circumference, and childhood cognitive ability. Where disease diagnosis was available for UK Biobank participants we were able to show that these results were not confounded by those who had the relevant disease. These findings indicate that a substantial level of pleiotropy exists between cognitive abilities and many human mental and physical health disorders and traits and that it can be used to predict phenotypic variance across samples. ER -