Objective This research aimed to investigate the causal relationship between atopic dermatitis (AD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) among European and East Asian populations through bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. Methods The study utilized aggregated data from large‐scale population genome‐wide association studies, employed the inverse‐variance weighted (IVW) method as the primary analytical approach for MR analysis, and conducted sensitivity analyses to evaluate the robustness of the MR analysis results. Results The IVW analysis results suggested a statistically significant positive causal effect of AD on COPD in both European and East Asian populations, while COPD did not have a statistically significant causal effect on AD in these populations. The results of Cochran’s Q statistic, MR‐Egger intercept, and MR‐PRESSO tests suggested no significant heterogeneity or potential horizontal pleiotropy. The leave‐one‐out analysis revealed that the causal effect was not influenced by any individual SNP. Conclusions Among European and East Asian populations, AD may increase the risk of developing COPD, and there is no evidence indicating that COPD has a causal impact on the risk of AD onset. Therefore, screening for COPD in AD patients should be enhanced.
Fan et al. (Thu,) studied this question.