Early career Latinas in STEM: Challenges and solutions.

Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Central American Ancestry (MPRCA) individuals represent 82% of US Latinos. An intergenerational group of MPRCA women and allies met to discuss persistent underrepresentation of MPRCA women in STEM, identifying multi-level challenges and solutions. Implementation of these solutions is important and will benefit MPRCA women and the entire academic community.

Genotyping, sequencing and analysis of 140,000 adults from Mexico City.

The Mexico City Prospective Study is a prospective cohort of more than 150,000 adults recruited two decades ago from the urban districts of Coyoacán and Iztapalapa in Mexico City1. Here we generated genotype and exome-sequencing data for all individuals and whole-genome sequencing data for 9,950 selected individuals. We describe high levels of relatedness and substantial heterogeneity in ancestry composition across individuals. Most sequenced individuals had admixed Indigenous American, European and African ancestry, with extensive admixture from Indigenous populations in central, southern and southeastern Mexico. Indigenous Mexican segments of the genome had lower levels of coding variation but an excess of homozygous loss-of-function variants compared with segments of African and European origin. We estimated ancestry-specific allele frequencies at 142 million genomic variants, with an effective sample size of 91,856 for Indigenous Mexican ancestry at exome variants, all available through a public browser. Using whole-genome sequencing, we developed an imputation reference panel that outperforms existing panels at common variants in individuals with high proportions of central, southern and southeastern Indigenous Mexican ancestry. Our work illustrates the value of genetic studies in diverse populations and provides foundational imputation and allele frequency resources for future genetic studies in Mexico and in the United States, where the Hispanic/Latino population is predominantly of Mexican descent.

Mexican Biobank advances population and medical genomics of diverse ancestries.

Latin America continues to be severely underrepresented in genomics research, and fine-scale genetic histories and complex trait architectures remain hidden owing to insufficient data1. To fill this gap, the Mexican Biobank project genotyped 6,057 individuals from 898 rural and urban localities across all 32 states in Mexico at a resolution of 1.8 million genome-wide markers with linked complex trait and disease information creating a valuable nationwide genotype-phenotype database. Here, using ancestry deconvolution and inference of identity-by-descent segments, we inferred ancestral population sizes across Mesoamerican regions over time, unravelling Indigenous, colonial and postcolonial demographic dynamics2-6. We observed variation in runs of homozygosity among genomic regions with different ancestries reflecting distinct demographic histories and, in turn, different distributions of rare deleterious variants. We conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for 22 complex traits and found that several traits are better predicted using the Mexican Biobank GWAS compared to the UK Biobank GWAS7,8. We identified genetic and environmental factors associating with trait variation, such as the length of the genome in runs of homozygosity as a predictor for body mass index, triglycerides, glucose and height. This study provides insights into the genetic histories of individuals in Mexico and dissects their complex trait architectures, both crucial for making precision and preventive medicine initiatives accessible worldwide.

Polygenic scoring accuracy varies across the genetic ancestry continuum.

Polygenic scores (PGSs) have limited portability across different groupings of individuals (for example, by genetic ancestries and/or social determinants of health), preventing their equitable use1-3. PGS portability has typically been assessed using a single aggregate population-level statistic (for example, R2)4, ignoring inter-individual variation within the population. Here, using a large and diverse Los Angeles biobank5 (ATLAS, n = 36,778) along with the UK Biobank6 (UKBB, n = 487,409), we show that PGS accuracy decreases individual-to-individual along the continuum of genetic ancestries7 in all considered populations, even within traditionally labelled 'homogeneous' genetic ancestries. The decreasing trend is well captured by a continuous measure of genetic distance (GD) from the PGS training data: Pearson correlation of -0.95 between GD and PGS accuracy averaged across 84 traits. When applying PGS models trained on individuals labelled as white British in the UKBB to individuals with European ancestries in ATLAS, individuals in the furthest GD decile have 14% lower accuracy relative to the closest decile; notably, the closest GD decile of individuals with Hispanic Latino American ancestries show similar PGS performance to the furthest GD decile of individuals with European ancestries. GD is significantly correlated with PGS estimates themselves for 82 of 84 traits, further emphasizing the importance of incorporating the continuum of genetic ancestries in PGS interpretation. Our results highlight the need to move away from discrete genetic ancestry clusters towards the continuum of genetic ancestries when considering PGSs.

COVID-19 amplified racial disparities in the US criminal legal system.

The criminal legal system in the USA drives an incarceration rate that is the highest on the planet, with disparities by class and race among its signature features1-3. During the first year of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the number of incarcerated people in the USA decreased by at least 17%-the largest, fastest reduction in prison population in American history4. Here we ask how this reduction influenced the racial composition of US prisons and consider possible mechanisms for these dynamics. Using an original dataset curated from public sources on prison demographics across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, we show that incarcerated white people benefited disproportionately from the decrease in the US prison population and that the fraction of incarcerated Black and Latino people sharply increased. This pattern of increased racial disparity exists across prison systems in nearly every state and reverses a decade-long trend before 2020 and the onset of COVID-19, when the proportion of incarcerated white people was increasing amid declining numbers of incarcerated Black people5. Although a variety of factors underlie these trends, we find that racial inequities in average sentence length are a major contributor. Ultimately, this study reveals how disruptions caused by COVID-19 exacerbated racial inequalities in the criminal legal system, and highlights key forces that sustain mass incarceration. To advance opportunities for data-driven social science, we publicly released the data associated with this study at Zenodo6.

Cancer statistics for the US Hispanic/Latino population, 2021.

The Hispanic/Latino population is the second largest racial/ethnic group in the continental United States and Hawaii, accounting for 18% (60.6 million) of the total population. An additional 3 million Hispanic Americans live in Puerto Rico. Every 3 years, the American Cancer Society reports on cancer occurrence, risk factors, and screening for Hispanic individuals in the United States using the most recent population-based data. An estimated 176,600 new cancer cases and 46,500 cancer deaths will occur among Hispanic individuals in the continental United States and Hawaii in 2021. Compared to non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs), Hispanic men and women had 25%-30% lower incidence (2014-2018) and mortality (2015-2019) rates for all cancers combined and lower rates for the most common cancers, although this gap is diminishing. For example, the colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence rate ratio for Hispanic compared with NHW individuals narrowed from 0.75 (95% CI, 0.73-0.78) in 1995 to 0.91 (95% CI, 0.89-0.93) in 2018, reflecting delayed declines in CRC rates among Hispanic individuals in part because of slower uptake of screening. In contrast, Hispanic individuals have higher rates of infection-related cancers, including approximately two-fold higher incidence of liver and stomach cancer. Cervical cancer incidence is 32% higher among Hispanic women in the continental US and Hawaii and 78% higher among women in Puerto Rico compared to NHW women, yet is largely preventable through screening. Less access to care may be similarly reflected in the low prevalence of localized-stage breast cancer among Hispanic women, 59% versus 67% among NHW women. Evidence-based strategies for decreasing the cancer burden among the Hispanic population include the use of culturally appropriate lay health advisors and patient navigators and targeted, community-based intervention programs to facilitate access to screening and promote healthy behaviors. In addition, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer trends and disparities in the Hispanic population should be closely monitored.

Lidar reveals pre-Hispanic low-density urbanism in the Bolivian Amazon.

Archaeological remains of agrarian-based, low-density urbananism1-3 have been reported to exist beneath the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and Central America4-6. However, beyond some large interconnected settlements in southern Amazonia7-9, there has been no such evidence for pre-Hispanic Amazonia. Here we present lidar data of sites belonging to the Casarabe culture (around AD 500 to AD 1400)10-13 in the Llanos de Mojos savannah-forest mosaic, southwest Amazonia, revealing the presence of two remarkably large sites (147 ha and 315 ha) in a dense four-tiered settlement system. The Casarabe culture area, as far as known today, spans approximately 4,500 km2, with one of the large settlement sites controlling an area of approximately 500 km2. The civic-ceremonial architecture of these large settlement sites includes stepped platforms, on top of which lie U-shaped structures, rectangular platform mounds and conical pyramids (which are up to 22 m tall). The large settlement sites are surrounded by ranked concentric polygonal banks and represent central nodes that are connected to lower-ranked sites by straight, raised causeways that stretch over several kilometres. Massive water-management infrastructure, composed of canals and reservoirs, complete the settlement system in an anthropogenically modified landscape. Our results indicate that the Casarabe-culture settlement pattern represents a type of tropical low-density urbanism that has not previously been described in Amazonia.

Imputation accuracy across global human populations.

Genotype imputation is now fundamental for genome-wide association studies but lacks fairness due to the underrepresentation of references from non-European ancestries. The state-of-the-art imputation reference panel released by the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) initiative improved the imputation of admixed African-ancestry and Hispanic/Latino samples, but imputation for populations primarily residing outside of North America may still fall short in performance due to persisting underrepresentation. To illustrate this point, we imputed the genotypes of over 43,000 individuals across 123 populations around the world and identified numerous populations where imputation accuracy paled in comparison to that of European-ancestry populations. For instance, the mean imputation r-squared (Rsq) for variants with minor allele frequencies between 1% and 5% in Saudi Arabians (n = 1,061), Vietnamese (n = 1,264), Thai (n = 2,435), and Papua New Guineans (n = 776) were 0.79, 0.78, 0.76, and 0.62, respectively, compared to 0.90-0.93 for comparable European populations matched in sample size and SNP array content. Outside of Africa and Latin America, Rsq appeared to decrease as genetic distances to European-ancestry reference increased, as predicted. Using sequencing data as ground truth, we also showed that Rsq may over-estimate imputation accuracy for non-European populations more than European populations, suggesting further disparity in accuracy between populations. Using 1,496 sequenced individuals from Taiwan Biobank as a second reference panel to TOPMed, we also assessed a strategy to improve imputation for non-European populations with meta-imputation, but this design did not improve accuracy across frequency spectra. Taken together, our analyses suggest that we must ultimately strive to increase diversity and size to promote equity within genetics research.

Deportation threat predicts Latino US citizens and noncitizens' psychological distress, 2011 to 2018.

The national context of deportation threat, defined as the federal government's approach to deportation and/or deportation's salience to the US public, fluctuated between 2011 and 2018. US Latinos across citizenship statuses may have experienced growing psychological distress associated with these changes, given their disproportionate personal or proximal vulnerabilities to deportation. Drawing on 8 y of public- and restricted-access data from the National Health Interview Survey (2011 to 2018), this article examines trends in psychological distress among Latinos who are US-born citizens, naturalized citizens, and noncitizens. It then seeks to explain these trends by considering two theoretical pathways through which the national context of deportation threat could distress Latinos: 1) through discrete dramatic societal events that independently signal a change to the country's approach to deportation and/or that render deportation temporarily more salient to the public or 2) through more gradual changes to the country's everyday institutional (i.e., quotidian efforts to detain and deport noncitizens) and social (i.e., deportation's ongoing salience to a concerned public) environment of deportation threat. We find that, though both pathways matter to some degree, there is more consistent evidence that the gradual changes are associated with Latino US citizens and noncitizens' overall experiences of psychological distress. The article highlights how, even absent observable spillover effects of dramatic societal events bearing on deportation threat, the institutional and social environment in which they occur implicates Latinos' well-being.

Reevaluating the "deaths of despair" narrative: Racial/ethnic heterogeneity in the trend of psychological distress-related death.

Despite the significant scientific advancement in deciphering the "deaths of despair" narrative, most relevant studies have focused on drug-, alcohol-, and suicide-related (DAS) deaths. This study directly investigated despair as a determinant of death and the temporal variation and racial heterogeneity among individuals. We used psychological distress (PD) as a proxy for despair and drew data from the US National Health Interview Survey-Linked Mortality Files 1997 to 2014, CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Multiple Cause of Death database 1997 to 2014, CDC bridged-race population files 1997 to 2014, Current Population Survey 1997 to 1999, and the American Community Survey 2000 to 2014. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate mortality hazard ratios of PD and compared age-standardized PD- and DAS-related mortality rates by race/ethnicity and over time. We found that while Whites had a lower prevalence of PD than Blacks and Hispanics throughout the whole period, they underwent distinctive increases in PD-related death and have had a higher PD-related mortality rate than Blacks and Hispanics since the early 2000s. This was predominantly due to Whites' relatively high and increasing vulnerability to PD less the prevalence of PD. Furthermore, PD induced a more pervasive mortality consequence than DAS combined for Whites and Blacks. In addition, PD- and DAS-related deaths displayed a concordant trend among Whites but divergent patterns for Blacks and Hispanics. These findings suggest that 1) DAS-related deaths underestimated the mortality consequence of despair for Whites and Blacks but overestimated it for Hispanics; and 2) despair partially contributed to the DAS trend among Whites but probably not for Blacks and Hispanics.

Residential mobility and persistently depressed voting among disadvantaged adults in a large housing experiment.

This study examines the impact of residential mobility on electoral participation among the poor by matching data from Moving to Opportunity, a US-based multicity housing-mobility experiment, with nationwide individual voter data. Nearly all participants in the experiment were Black and Hispanic families who originally lived in high-poverty public housing developments. Notably, the study finds that receiving a housing voucher to move to a low-poverty neighborhood decreased adult participants' voter participation for nearly two decades-a negative impact equal to or outpacing that of the most effective get-out-the-vote campaigns in absolute magnitude. This finding has important implications for understanding residential mobility as a long-run depressant of voter turnout among extremely low-income adults.

A multi-ancestry genome-wide association study in type 1 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease caused by destruction of the pancreatic ß-cells. Genome-wide association (GWAS) and fine mapping studies have been conducted mainly in European ancestry (EUR) populations. We performed a multi-ancestry GWAS to identify SNPs and HLA alleles associated with T1D risk and age at onset. EUR families (N = 3223), and unrelated individuals of African (AFR, N = 891) and admixed (Hispanic/Latino) ancestry (AMR, N = 308) were genotyped using the Illumina HumanCoreExome BeadArray, with imputation to the TOPMed reference panel. The Multi-Ethnic HLA reference panel was utilized to impute HLA alleles and amino acid residues. Logistic mixed models (T1D risk) and frailty models (age at onset) were used for analysis. In GWAS meta-analysis, seven loci were associated with T1D risk at genome-wide significance: PTPN22, HLA-DQA1, IL2RA, RNLS, INS, IKZF4-RPS26-ERBB3, and SH2B3, with four associated with T1D age at onset (PTPN22, HLA-DQB1, INS, and ERBB3). AFR and AMR meta-analysis revealed NRP1 as associated with T1D risk and age at onset, although NRP1 variants were not associated in EUR ancestry. In contrast, the PTPN22 variant was significantly associated with risk only in EUR ancestry. HLA alleles and haplotypes most significantly associated with T1D risk in AFR and AMR ancestry differed from that seen in EUR ancestry; in addition, the HLA-DRB1*08:02-DQA1*04:01-DQB1*04:02 haplotype was 'protective' in AMR while HLA-DRB1*08:01-DQA1*04:01-DQB1*04:02 haplotype was 'risk' in EUR ancestry, differing only at HLA-DRB1*08. These results suggest that much larger sample sizes in non-EUR populations are required to capture novel loci associated with T1D risk.

Racial Inequality in Receipt of Medications for Opioid Use Disorder.

BACKGROUND: Since 2010, Black persons in the United States have had a greater increase in opioid overdose-related mortality than other groups, but national-level evidence characterizing racial and ethnic disparities in the use of medications for opioid use disorder (OUD) is limited. METHODS: We used Medicare claims data from the 2016-2019 period for a random 40% sample of fee-for-service beneficiaries who were Black, Hispanic, or White; were eligible for Medicare owing to disability; and had an index event related to OUD (nonfatal overdose treated in an emergency department or inpatient setting, hospitalization with injection drug use-related infection, or inpatient or residential rehabilitation or detoxification care). We measured the receipt of medications to treat OUD (buprenorphine, naltrexone, and naloxone), the receipt of high-risk medications (opioid analgesics and benzodiazepines), and health care utilization, all in the 180 days after the index event. We estimated differences in outcomes according to race and ethnic group with adjustment for beneficiary age, sex, index event, count of chronic coexisting conditions, and state of residence. RESULTS: We identified 25,904 OUD-related index events among 23,370 beneficiaries, with 3937 events (15.2%) occurring among Black patients, 2105 (8.1%) among Hispanic patients, and 19,862 (76.7%) among White patients. In the 180 days after the index event, patients received buprenorphine after 12.7% of events among Black patients, after 18.7% of those among Hispanic patients, and after 23.3% of those among White patients; patients received naloxone after 14.4%, 20.7%, and 22.9%, respectively; and patients received benzodiazepines after 23.4%, 29.6%, and 37.1%, respectively. Racial differences in the receipt of medications to treat OUD did not change appreciably from 2016 to 2019 (buprenorphine receipt: after 9.1% of index events among Black patients vs. 21.6% of those among White patients in 2016, and after 14.1% vs. 25.5% in 2019). In all study groups, patients had multiple ambulatory visits in the 180 days after the index event (mean number of visits, 6.6 after events among Black patients, 6.7 after events among Hispanic patients, and 7.6 after events among White patients). CONCLUSIONS: Racial and ethnic differences in the receipt of medications to treat OUD after an index event related to this disorder among patients with disability were substantial and did not change over time. The high incidence of ambulatory visits in all groups showed that disparities persisted despite frequent health care contact. (Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Aging.).

Shifts in the Distribution of Births by Gestational Age: United States, 2014-2022.

Objectives-This report presents changes in the distribution of singleton births by gestational age in the United States for 2014-2022, by maternal age and race and Hispanic origin. Methods-Data are based on all birth certificates for singleton births registered in the United States from 2014 to 2022. Gestational age is measured in completed weeks using the obstetric estimate and categorized as early preterm (less than 34 weeks), late preterm (34-36 weeks), total preterm (less than 37 weeks), early term (37-38 weeks), full term (39-40 weeks), and late- and post-term (41 and later weeks). Data are shown by maternal age and race and Hispanic origin. Single weeks of gestation at term (37-41 weeks) are also examined. Results-Despite some fluctuation in most gestational age categories during the pandemic years of 2020-2022, trends from 2014 to 2022 demonstrate a shift towards shorter gestational ages. Preterm and early-term birth rates rose from 2014 to 2022 (by 12% and 20%, respectively), while full-term and lateand post-term births declined (by 6% and 28%, respectively). Similar shifts for each gestational age category were seen across maternal age and race and Hispanic-origin groups. By single week of gestation at term, the largest change was for births at 37 weeks (an increase of 42%).

Infant Mortality by Selected Maternal Characteristics and Race and Hispanic Origin in the United States, 2019-2021.

Objectives- This report presents infant mortality rates for selected maternal characteristics (prepregnancy body mass index, cigarette smoking during pregnancy, receipt of Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) benefits during pregnancy, timing of prenatal care, and source of payment for delivery) for the five largest maternal race and Hispanic-origin groups in the United States for combined years 2019-2021. Methods-Descriptive tabulations based on data from the linked birth/infant death files for 2019-2021 are presented. The linked birth/infant death file is based on birth and death certificates registered in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Infant mortality rates are presented for each maternal race and Hispanic-origin group overall and by selected characteristics. Results-Infant mortality rates varied across the five largest maternal race and Hispanic-origin groups and by selected maternal characteristics. For most race and Hispanic-origin groups, mortality rates were higher among infants of women with prepregnancy obesity compared with those of women who were normal weight, and were higher for infants of women who smoked cigarettes during pregnancy, received late or no prenatal care, or were covered by Medicaid as the source of payment for delivery. Overall, mortality rates were higher for infants of women who received WIC during pregnancy, but results varied across race and Hispanic-origin groups. Mortality rates for the maternal characteristics examined were generally highest among infants of Black non-Hispanic and American Indian and Alaska Native non-Hispanic women and lowest for Asian non-Hispanic women.

Non-White scientists appear on fewer editorial boards, spend more time under review, and receive fewer citations.

Disparities continue to pose major challenges in various aspects of science. One such aspect is editorial board composition, which has been shown to exhibit racial and geographical disparities. However, the literature on this subject lacks longitudinal studies quantifying the degree to which the racial composition of editors reflects that of scientists. Other aspects that may exhibit racial disparities include the time spent between the submission and acceptance of a manuscript and the number of citations a paper receives relative to textually similar papers, but these have not been studied to date. To fill this gap, we compile a dataset of 1,000,000 papers published between 2001 and 2020 by six publishers, while identifying the handling editor of each paper. Using this dataset, we show that most countries in Asia, Africa, and South America (where the majority of the population is ethnically non-White) have fewer editors than would be expected based on their share of authorship. Focusing on US-based scientists reveals Black as the most underrepresented race. In terms of acceptance delay, we find, again, that papers from Asia, Africa, and South America spend more time compared to other papers published in the same journal and the same year. Regression analysis of US-based papers reveals that Black authors suffer from the greatest delay. Finally, by analyzing citation rates of US-based papers, we find that Black and Hispanic scientists receive significantly fewer citations compared to White ones doing similar research. Taken together, these findings highlight significant challenges facing non-White scientists.

Trends in racial and ethnic discrimination in hiring in six Western countries.

We examine trends in racial and ethnic discrimination in hiring in six European and North American countries: Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and the United States. Our sample includes all available discrimination estimates from 90 field experimental studies of hiring discrimination, encompassing more than 170,000 applications for jobs. The years covered vary by country, ranging from 1969 to 2017 for Great Britain to 1994 to 2017 for Germany. We examine trends in discrimination against four racial-ethnic origin groups: African/Black, Asian, Latin American/Hispanic, and Middle Eastern or North African. The results indicate that levels of discrimination in callbacks have remained either unchanged or slightly increased overall for most countries and origin categories. There are three notable exceptions. First, hiring discrimination against ethnic groups with origins in the Middle East and North Africa increased during the 2000s relative to the 1990s. Second, we find that discrimination in France declined, although from very high to "merely" high levels. Third, we find evidence that discrimination in the Netherlands has increased over time. Controls for study characteristics do not change these trends. Contrary to the idea that discrimination will tend to decline in Western countries, we find that discrimination has not fallen over the last few decades in five of the six Western countries we examine.

Distribution of capitalized benefits from land conservation.

Land conservation efforts throughout the United States sustain ecological benefits while generating wealth in the housing market through capitalization of amenities. This paper estimates the benefits of conservation that are capitalized into proximate home values and quantifies how those benefits are distributed across demographic groups. Using detailed property and household-level data from Massachusetts, we estimate that new land conservation led to $62 million in new housing wealth equity. However, houses owned by low-income or Black or Hispanic households are less likely to be located near protected areas, and hence, these populations are less likely to benefit financially. Direct study of the distribution of this new wealth from capitalized conservation is highly unequal, with the richest quartile of households receiving 43%, White households receiving 91%, and the richest White households receiving 40%, which is nearly 140% more than would be expected under equal distribution. We extend our analysis using census data for the entire United States and observe parallel patterns. We estimate that recent land conservation generated $9.8 billion in wealth through the housing market and that wealthier and White households benefited disproportionately. These findings suggest regressive and racially disparate incidence of the wealth benefits of land conservation policy.

All human social groups are human, but some are more human than others: A comprehensive investigation of the implicit association of "Human" to US racial/ethnic groups.

All human groups are equally human, but are they automatically represented as such? Harnessing data from 61,377 participants across 13 experiments (six primary and seven supplemental), a sharp dissociation between implicit and explicit measures emerged. Despite explicitly affirming the equal humanity of all racial/ethnic groups, White participants consistently associated Human (relative to Animal) more with White than Black, Hispanic, and Asian groups on Implicit Association Tests (IATs; experiments 1-4). This effect emerged across diverse representations of Animal that varied in valence (pets, farm animals, wild animals, and vermin; experiments 1-2). Non-White participants showed no such Human=Own Group bias (e.g., Black participants on a White-Black/Human-Animal IAT). However, when the test included two outgroups (e.g., Asian participants on a White-Black/Human-Animal IAT), non-White participants displayed Human=White associations. The overall effect was largely invariant across demographic variations in age, religion, and education but did vary by political ideology and gender, with self-identified conservatives and men displaying stronger Human=White associations (experiment 3). Using a variance decomposition method, experiment 4 showed that the Human=White effect cannot be attributed to valence alone; the semantic meaning of Human and Animal accounted for a unique proportion of variance. Similarly, the effect persisted even when Human was contrasted with positive attributes (e.g., God, Gods, and Dessert; experiment 5a). Experiments 5a-b clarified the primacy of Human=White rather than Animal=Black associations. Together, these experiments document a factually erroneous but robust Human=Own Group implicit stereotype among US White participants (and globally), with suggestive evidence of its presence in other socially dominant groups.

Dietary Acculturation Is Associated With Altered Gut Microbiome, Circulating Metabolites, and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in US Hispanics and Latinos: Results From HCHS/SOL.

BACKGROUND: Dietary acculturation, or adoption of dominant culture diet by migrant groups, influences human health. We aimed to examine dietary acculturation and its relationships with cardiovascular disease (CVD), gut microbiota, and blood metabolites among US Hispanic and Latino adults. METHODS: In the HCHS/SOL (Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos), US exposure was defined by years in the United States (50 states and Washington, DC) and US nativity. A dietary acculturation pattern was derived from 14 172 participants with two 24-hour dietary recalls at baseline (2008-2011) using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression, with food groups as predictors of US exposure. We evaluated associations of dietary acculturation with incident CVD across ≈7 years of follow-up (n=211/14 172 cases/total) and gut microbiota (n=2349; visit 2, 2014 to 2017). Serum metabolites associated with both dietary acculturation-related gut microbiota (n=694) and incident CVD (n=108/5256 cases/total) were used as proxy measures to assess the association of diet-related gut microbiome with incident CVD. RESULTS: We identified an empirical US-oriented dietary acculturation score that increased with US exposure. Higher dietary acculturation score was associated with higher risk of incident CVD (hazard ratio per SD, 1.33 [95% CI, 1.13-1.57]), adjusted for sociodemographic, lifestyle, and clinical factors. Sixty-nine microbial species (17 enriched from diverse species, 52 depleted mainly from fiber-utilizing Clostridia and Prevotella species) were associated with dietary acculturation, driven by lower intakes of whole grains, beans, and fruits and higher intakes of refined grains. Twenty-five metabolites, involved predominantly in fatty acid and glycerophospholipid metabolism (eg, branched-chain 14:0 dicarboxylic acid** and glycerophosphoethanolamine), were associated with both diet acculturation-related gut microbiota and incident CVD. Proxy association analysis based on these metabolites suggested a positive relationship between diet acculturation-related microbiome and risk of CVD (r=0.70, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Among US Hispanic and Latino adults, greater dietary acculturation was associated with elevated CVD risk, possibly through alterations in gut microbiota and related metabolites. Diet and microbiota-targeted interventions may offer opportunities to mitigate CVD burdens of dietary acculturation.