Interethnic variation in lipid profiles: implications for underidentification of African–Americans at risk for metabolic disorders

Abstract

Summary Interethnic differences exist in the distribution of serum lipids, with African Americans (AA) generally having a healthier lipid profile than other US ethnic groups. Similar lipid distributions are observed among other African ancestry groups with distinct lifestyle characteristics, suggesting the importance of inherited factors. Despite healthier serum lipids, AA experience a disproportionate burden of Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease. As evidence of a different relationship between serum lipids and disease exists, the characterization of metabolic risk using lipid concentration (as in Metabolic Syndrome criteria) may lead to the under-identification of AA at risk. Given the disproportionately high rate of metabolic disorders in AA, understanding interethnic differences in the association between serum lipids and disease should be a research priority, as better appreciation of these differences will enhance knowledge of disease etiology, improve intervention targeting, and may lead to mechanisms to ameliorate debilitating health disparities in the US and globally.

Interethnic Differences in Serum Lipids and Implications for Cardiometabolic Disease Risk in African Ancestry Populations

“…With considerable variability, AA have approximately 80% African ancestry. Simple association tests show that a 10% increase in African ancestry correlates with a 1% decrease in TG and a 0.7 mg/dl increase in HDLC, after adjustment for covariates[77]. Similar results have also been found in other studies[78, 79].…”

Diversity and inclusion in genomic research: why the uneven progress?

“…In addition to genetic complexity represented by African ancestry populations, there is also considerable heterogeneity in environmental context among individuals in the diaspora, affecting factors that are certain contributors to disease risk: diet, physical activity, socioeconomic status, stress, infectious disease exposure, smoking, alcohol consumption, healthcare access, and healthcare beliefs, etc. (Bentley and Rotimi 2012;Rotimi et al 2016). Although level of education may be collected in studies of both African Americans and West Africans, the meaning of these categorizations will be much different in terms of socioeconomic background in these two environments.…”

Genetic Epidemiology of Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Diseases in Africa

“…It is believed that the APOL1 risk variant rose to high frequency in West African populations presumably to provide protection against a deadly form of African sleeping sickness. 63–65 In sum, the increasing incidence of CVD in Africa along with evidence of genetic variants that increase susceptibility to CVD signal the need for large scale genetic epidemiology studies on CVD in Africa.…”