Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Single-Trait And Multi-Trait Genome-Wide Association Analyses Identify Novel Loci For Blood Pressure In African-Ancestry Populations, Jingjing Liang, Thu H. Le, Digna R. Velez Edwards, Bamidele O. Tayo, Kyle J. Gaulton, Jennifer A. Smith, Yingchang Lu, Richard A. Jensen, Guanjie Chen, Lisa R. Yanek, Karen Schwander, Salman M. Tajuddin, Tamar Sofer, Wonji Kim, James Kayima, Colin A. Mckenzie, Ervin Fox, Michael A. Nalls, J. Hunter Young, Yan V. Sun, Jacqueline M. Lane, Sylvia Cechova, Jie Zhou, Hua Tang, Myriam Fornage, Solomon K. Musani, Heming Wang, Juyoung Lee, Adebowale Adeyemo, Albert W. Dreisbach, Donna K. Arnett

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Hypertension is a leading cause of global disease, mortality, and disability. While individuals of African descent suffer a disproportionate burden of hypertension and its complications, they have been underrepresented in genetic studies. To identify novel susceptibility loci for blood pressure and hypertension in people of African ancestry, we performed both single and multiple-trait genome-wide association analyses. We analyzed 21 genome-wide association studies comprised of 31,968 individuals of African ancestry, and validated our results with additional 54,395 individuals from multi-ethnic studies. These analyses identified nine loci with eleven independent variants which reached genome-wide significance (P < 1.25×10⁻⁸) for either systolic and …

Knowledge And Beliefs About Cancer In African American Population, Rabindra P. Gautam Dhs, Deven Shah Phd, Eric Matthews Phd

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the United States, taking the lives of one in four Americans each year (American Cancer Society [ACS], 2015). A total of 1,658,370 new cancer cases and 589,430 deaths from cancer were projected to occur in the United States in 2015 (ACS, 2015). In 2013, approximately 176,630 new cancer cases and 64,880 deaths from cancer were projected to occur in African American communities. The majority of diagnoses were cancers of the prostate, lung, colon, rectum, breast, and colorectal region (ACS, 2013). For most cancers, African Americans have the highest death rate, …

Sociocultural Risk Factors For Elevated Perceived Stress Among African American Smokers, Monica Webb Hooper, Noella A. Dietz, Joseph C. Wilson

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Introduction: African Americans experience unique stressors that may inhibit smoking cessation and enhance relapse rates. Few studies, however, have focused on risk factors for perceived stress among treatment seekers. Because African Americans are less likely to quit compared to the larger community, understanding factors associated with perceived stress among smokers has the potential to improve intervention outcomes. This study examined psychosocial and cultural correlates of stress in a sample of African American participants in a randomized controlled trial.

Methods: At baseline, participants reported demographic factors and completed assessments of smoking history, alcohol use, friend and household smoking, weight concerns, acculturation, …

Pill Poppin’ Nation: Substance Use, Mental Health, And Treatment Among Criminal Justice-Involved African Americans, Joi-Sheree' P. Knighton

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine substance use-related outcomes among criminal justice-involved African Americans using a multiple manuscript format. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has deemed nonmedical prescription opioid use an epidemic. National estimates indicate approximately 3.9% of African Americans engage in nonmedical prescription opioid use. Research suggests African Americans involved in the criminal justice system may be significantly at risk of substance use more generally; yet, there are no known estimates of nonmedical opioid use among this subgroup. Rising rates of nonmedical opioid use also has implications for discussing barriers to treatment among socioeconomically marginalized …