Mendelian randomization analyses of maternal iron deficiency anaemia during pregnancy and offspring congenital heart disease

Our ongoing observational analysis in the UK population has shown an association between maternal anaemia and congenital heart defects in children. We therefore aim to replicate observational analysis in BiB and conduct Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses to examine evidence of a potential causal association.
This proposed research will analyse data on maternal and offspring genotypes, maternal iron status (such as haemoglobin concentrations) during pregnancy and offspring congenital heart defects in BiB. The resulting summary statistics on the maternal genetic effects on haemoglobin status during pregnancy, the maternal genetic and offspring effects on congenital heart defects will be separately compared and meta-analysed with summary statistics from other genome-wide association studies among European ancestry.