Do Poor Diet and Lifestyle Behaviors Modify the Genetic Susceptibility to Impulsivity in the General Population?

The present study investigated whether an unhealthy diet and other lifestyle behaviors may modify the genetic susceptibility to impulsivity. A total of 33,047 participants (mean age = 42.1 years, 59.8% females) from the Dutch Lifelines cohort were included. Each diet index and other lifestyle behaviors were tested for their interactions on the effect on the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) polygenic risk score (PRS) on impulsivity using a linear regression model with adjustment for covariates. The ADHD PRS was significantly associated with impulsivity (B = 0.03 (95% CI: 0.02, 0.04); p = 2.61 × 10-9). A poorer diet, a higher intake of energy, and a higher intake of fat were all associated with higher impulsivity, and a high intake of energy amplified the effect of ADHD PRS on impulsivity (e.g., for the interaction term of ADHD PRS and highest tertile on intake of energy, B = 0.038 (95% CI: 0.014, 0.062); p = 0.002. The other lifestyle factors, namely short and long sleep duration, current and past smoking, higher alcohol intake, and more time spent on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were associated with higher impulsivity, but no interaction effect was observed. In conclusion, we found that a high intake of energy exacerbated the genetic susceptibility to impulsivity. Our study helps to improve our understanding of the role of diet and genetic factors on impulsivity.
This research was funded by European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program, grant number 728018 (Eat2beNICE/H2020-SFS-2016-2). The Lifelines Biobank initiative has been made possible by funding from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG The Netherlands), University of Groningen, and the Northern Provinces of the Netherlands. The generation and management of GWAS genotype data for the Lifelines Cohort Study is supported by the UMCG Genetics Lifelines Initiative (UGLI). UGLI is partly supported by a Spinoza Grant from NWO, awarded to Cisca Wijmenga.