Mendelian randomization

In epidemiology, Mendelian randomization (commonly abbreviated to MR) is a method using measured variation in genes to examine the causal effect of an exposure on an outcome. Under key assumptions (see below), the design reduces both reverse causation and confounding, which often substantially impede or mislead the interpretation of results from epidemiological studies.^[1]

The study design was first proposed in 1986^[2] and subsequently described by Gray and Wheatley^[3] as a method for obtaining unbiased estimates of the effects of an assumed causal variable without conducting a traditional randomized controlled trial (the standard in epidemiology for establishing causality). These authors also coined the term Mendelian randomization.