Synergistic effects of early psychosocial factors and polygenic risk for smoking: a cross sectional analysis of a sample of older adults in the US

Abstract PURPOSE Examine early psychosocial factors (EPFs) as effect modifiers of genetic influence on smoking. METHODS Data are from the Health and Retirement Study. We assessed the odds ratio for Polygenic score for smoking, select EPFs, and their interaction terms in relation to ever smoking, adjusting for sex and the 5 principal components. RESULTS Among the EPFs examined, parental warmth and genetic risk for smoking showed significant additive interactions to influence smoking behavior (RERI = 0.42 [0, 0.85], p = 0.03), resulting in 75% higher odds of smoking compared to individuals without these exposures. CONCLUSIONS Low parental warmth exacerbated genetic predisposition to smoking.