Testosterone and Socioeconomic Status: Mendelian Randomization in 306,248 Men and Women from the UK Biobank

Science Adv Sys 2021 July 28:.

Vol. 7, No. 31, eabf8257

DOI: 10.1126 / sciadv.abf8257

Commentary

This study will investigate whether the effects of testosterone improve social status. One theory is that men with more favorable socioeconomic status (SEP) have been observed to have higher levels of testosterone, so it is unclear whether these associations are occurring because testosterone is causally related to SEP, but there are those who believe that higher testosterone levels are associated with success There are some who believe that high testosterone levels are associated with success.

After identifying genetic variants associated with testosterone and performing a gender stratified genome-wide association analysis on 306,248 participants at UK Biobank, the identified variants were used to perform a Mendelian randomized analysis of the effect of testosterone on socioeconomic status, including income, employment status, neighborhood level deprivation, and educational qualifications.

For health, including self-rated health and body mass index, and for risk-taking behavior, we found little evidence that testosterone affected socioeconomic status, health, or risk-taking.

These results suggest that testosterone is unlikely to meaningfully influence these outcomes in men and women. The differences between the Mendelian randomized and multivariable adjusted estimates suggest that the previously reported association between socioeconomic position and health may be due to residual confounding or reverse causality.

In other words, it would be possible to detect higher testosterone levels in people with more favorable social status, but higher testosterone levels do not necessarily mean more favorable social status.

Well, it gave me a confirmation of what I could predict if I calmly reconsidered.