Association of genetic ancestry with preterm delivery and related traits among African American mothers.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

In the United States, the rate of preterm delivery (PTD) is higher in African Americans (17.8%) than non-Hispanic whites (11.5%). Such disparity cannot be fully explained by differences in socioenvironmental factors.

Study design

We genotyped 812 mothers in a case-control PTD study at Boston Medical Center who self-reported their ethnicity as "black." Regression analysis and Wilcoxon rank-sum test were applied to evaluate ancestral distribution and the association between genetic ancestry and PTD-related traits, as well as the potential confounding effect of population stratification.

Results

The estimated African ancestral proportion was 0.90 +/- 0.13. We found significant associations of ancestral proportion with PTD as a whole and PTD subgrouped by the presence of maternal hypertensive disorders. We did not observe significant confounding as a result of population stratification in this case-control PTD study.

Conclusion

Our data underline the need for more intensive investigation of genetic admixture in African Americans to identify novel susceptibility genes of PTD.

SUBMITTER: Tsai HJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2859981 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature