SummaryOver 73,700 adults age 40-79, nearly 70% African American, were recruited at community health centers across 12 southeastern states; individual characteristics were recorded and biologic specimens collected at baseline for later follow-up. The Southern Community Cohort Study is a unique national resource for assessing determinants of racial/ethnic differentials in diseases.

Background and Objective The oral microbiome may help to maintain systemic health, including how it affects blood glucose levels; however, direct evidence linking the oral microbiome with diabetes is lacking. Material and Methods We compared the oral microbiome profiles of 98 participants with incident diabetes, 99 obese non-diabetics, and 97 normal weight non-diabetics, via deep sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Results We found that the phylum Actinobacteria was present significantly less abundant among diabetes patients than among the controls (P=3.9 × 10−3); the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) was 0.27(0.11–0.66) for those individuals who had relative abundance higher than the median value. Within this phylum, five families and seven genera were observed, and most of them were less abundant among diabetes patients. Notably, genera Actinomyces and Atopobium were associated with 66% and 72% decreased risk of diabetes with P values of 8.9 × 10−3 and 7.4 × 10−3, respectively. Stratified analyses by race showed that most taxa in this phylum were associated with diabetes in both black and white participants. This phylum was also less abundant among non-diabetic obese subjects compared to normal weight individuals, especially genera Mobiluncus, Corynebacterium and Bifidobacterium, which showed P <0.05. Conclusion Our study revealed that multiple bacteria taxa in the phylum Actinobacteria are associated with risk of type 2 diabetes. Some are also associated with the prevalence of obesity, suggesting that the oral microbiome may play an important role in diabetes etiology.

Our findings suggest that major differences in diabetes prevalence between African Americans and Whites may simply reflect differences in established risk factors for the disease, such as SES, that typically vary according to race.

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This study examines the association between perceived discrimination and underutilization of needed medical and mental health care, in a representative, multi-ethnic community sample. Data were derived from a cross sectional survey of 10,098 White, U.S.-born Black, African-born Black, American Indian, Hispanic, and Southeast Asian adults in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Even after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, health care access, and physical and mental health, perceived discrimination was associated with underutilization of medical care among Whites, U.S.-born Blacks, and American Indians and was associated with underutilization of mental health care among Whites, U.S.-born Blacks, Southeast Asians, and American Indians. Correlates of different types of discrimination (major, everyday, health care) on underutilization of care varied among ethnic groups. The higher prevalence of discrimination among racial and ethnic minorities may contribute to their underutilization of health care services. Future research is needed to understand the impacts of different types of discrimination on different groups.

Hypovitaminosis D was present in a substantial proportion of the African-American population studied, even in the South and among those meeting recommended dietary guidelines. Vitamin D should continue to be a studied target for ameliorating racial cancer disparities in the US.

Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified multiple common genetic risk variants for breast cancer among women of Asian and European ancestry. Investigating these genetic susceptibility loci in other populations would be helpful to evaluate the generalizability of the findings and identify the causal variants for breast cancer. We evaluated 11 GWASidentified genetic susceptibility loci for breast cancer in a study including 2,594 African-American women (810 cases and 1,784 controls). Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms, rs13387042 (2q35) and rs1219648 (FGFR2 gene), were found to be associated with breast cancer risk. Risk increased nearly linearly with the number of affected risk alleles, with a 2-fold elevated risk for women homozygous for the risk alleles in both single-nucleotide polymorphisms. No additional significant associations, however, were identified for the other nine loci evaluated in the study. The results from this study extend some of the recent GWAS findings to African-Americans and may guide future efforts to identify the causal variants for breast cancer.

The findings suggest that menthol cigarettes are no more, and perhaps less, harmful than nonmenthol cigarettes.