Unhealthy lifestyle habits up risk of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

An “unfavourable” lifestyle appears to put individuals at increased risk of developing idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), especially those with high genetic risk, according to a study.

The study included 407,615 participants from the UK Biobank. Researchers constructed a lifestyle score based on self-reported questionnaire data that involved sleep, exercise, smoking habits, alcohol use, television habits, as well as the intake of red meat, oily fish, fruits, and vegetables. Aside from the lifestyle score, a polygenic risk score (PRS) was also assigned for each participant, separately.

The participants were then grouped into three, according to lifestyle categories and genetic risk categories. Fitted Cox models facilitated assessment of the association of lifestyle and genetic risk with the risk of incident IPF.

The risk of developing IPF was higher in the intermediate lifestyle group (hazard ratio [HR], 1.384, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.218–1.574) and unfavourable lifestyle group (HR, 2.271, 95 percent CI, 1.852–2.785) as compared with the favourable lifestyle group.

Of note, lifestyle and PRS had combined effects, such that participants with unfavourable lifestyle and high genetic risk had the highest risk of IPF (HR, 7.796, 95 percent CI, 5.482–11.086) relative to those with favourable lifestyle and low genetic risk. About 32.7 percent of IPF risk could be attributed to the interaction of an unfavourable lifestyle and high genetic risk.