Exploring Causal Risk Factors for Metabolic and Endocrine Disorders

Metabolic and endocrine disorders are the main burden of noncommunicable chronic diseases, and they serve as important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases or multiple cancers. To date, a large number of correlates have been identified, but few of them were modifiable and causal. In general, causal relationships can be conceptualized not only in a probabilistic sense involving statistical terms and procedures, but also in the complexity of biological phenomena. The limited understanding of many underlying mechanisms hinders a deterministic conceptualization of disease causation. The identification of modifiable risk factors that have a causal effect on the incidence of these diseases and their complications is critical to the primary or secondary prevention of metabolic and endocrine diseases.

This Research Topic aims to explore the modifiable and causal risk factors for metabolic and endocrine diseases through well-designed studies, including but not restricted to cohort studies, Mendelian randomization approaches, post-hoc analyses of clinical trials, and real-world studies. Metabolic and endocrine diseases of interest could be diabetes mellitus, diabetes complications, thyroid disease, osteoporosis, adrenal disease, etc.

Original research and reviews covering the identification of modifiable and causal risk factors for metabolic and endocrine diseases are welcome. Potential sub-topics include but are not limited to:
• Newly identified modifiable risk factors of metabolic and endocrine diseases.
• Causality inference of traditional modifiable risk factors for metabolic and endocrine disease.
• Novel approaches to identify causal and modifiable risk factors.