Obesity

Sex and Race Differences in Obesity-Related Genetic Susceptibility and Risk of Cardiometabolic Disease in Older US Adults

JAMA Netw OpenPublished Cross-sectional study

Authors' conclusion

In this cross-sectional study of obesity phenotypes and their association with cardiometabolic diseases, the tested FTO SNVs reflected sex differences in White participants. Different patterns of associations were observed among self-identified Black participants. Therefore, these results could inform future work discovering risk alleles or risk scores unique to Black individuals or further investigating genetic risk in all US residents.

Study context

Population
US adults aged 45 to 98 years at baseline (enrolled 2003–2007), Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, with genetic data; mean age 64.4 years, 55.8% women
Participants
10,447 adults
Exposure
FTO single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) and obesity traits/cardiometabolic disease by sex, in Black vs White participants
  • Blackn = 8,743
  • Whiten = 1,704
Outcome
Obesity indicators (BMI, waist-to-height ratio), cardiometabolic diseases (hypertension, stroke history, heart disease, diabetes), and social-economic and psychosocial status
Follow-up
Baseline
Methodological detailspopulation-based cohort data (REGARDS), Genetic data assayed in 2018; data analyzed October 2021 to October 2022
  • Population-based cohort data (REGARDS)
  • Genetic data assayed in 2018; data analyzed October 2021 to October 2022

Main finding

As reported in the abstract

White: 11 FTO SNVs significantly associated with obesity, hypertension and diabetes (linear models); eg, BMI β

0.536

95% CI 0.197–0.875

Black: rs1121980 associated with direct increase in heart disease risk not mediated by obesity, c' (SE 0.0517; P = .01)

0.145

Observational data: associations, not effects.

Original publication

Sex and Race Differences in Obesity-Related Genetic Susceptibility and Risk of Cardiometabolic Disease in Older US Adults. JAMA Netw Open. Published 1 December 2023. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.47171

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