A scoping review of smoking cessation pharmacogenetic studies to advance future research across racial, ethnic, and ancestral populations.

Abstinence rates among smokers attempting to quit remain low despite the wide availability and accessibility of pharmacological smoking cessation treatments. In addition, the prevalence of cessation attempts and abstinence differs by individual-level social factors such as race and ethnicity. Clinical treatment of nicotine dependence also continues to be challenged by individual-level variability in effectiveness to promote abstinence. The use of tailored smoking cessation strategies that incorporate information on individual-level social and genetic factors hold promise, although additional pharmacogenomic knowledge is still needed. In particular, genetic variants associated with pharmacological responses to smoking cessation treatment have generally been conducted in populations with participants that self-identify as White race or who are determined to be of European genetic ancestry. These results may not adequately capture the variability across all smokers as a result of understudied differences in allele frequencies across genetic ancestry populations. This suggests that much of the current pharmacogenetic study results for smoking cessation may not apply to all populations. Therefore, clinical application of pharmacogenetic results may exacerbate health inequities by racial and ethnic groups. This scoping review examines the extent to which racial, ethnic, and ancestral groups that experience differences in smoking rates and smoking cessation are represented in the existing body of published pharmacogenetic studies of smoking cessation. We will summarize results by race, ethnicity, and ancestry across pharmacological treatments and study designs. We will also explore current opportunities and challenges in conducting pharmacogenomic research on smoking cessation that encourages greater participant diversity, including practical barriers to clinical utilization of pharmacological smoking cessation treatment and clinical implementation of pharmacogenetic knowledge.

Biobanking in Latinos: current status, principles for conduct, and contribution of a new biobank, El Banco por Salud, designed to improve the health of Latino patients of Mexican ancestry with type 2 diabetes.

Underserved Latino communities experience a greater burden of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) than the general population. Predictors of glycemic control are likely to include both biological/genetic and social determinants of health (SDOH). A variety of approaches have been used with cohorts of Latino patients to study aspects of this health disparity, and those are reviewed briefly here. Such projects range from cohorts that are studies for a primary purpose, for example, to discover genetic variation associated with T2DM or to examine a particular aspect of SDOH that might be involved. Other studies have been conducted more as infrastructure that is broadly based in order to provide a resource that can be used by many investigators to address a variety of questions. From our experience and those of others, we propose a set of principles to ensure that needs of the community are identified and taken into account during the conduct of these studies. As an example of the implementation of these principles, we also describe a new biobank El Banco por Salud (El Banco), which was designed to improve access to studies designed to improve glycemic control and health in Latinos in partnership with Federally Qualified Health Centers in Arizona.

Fruit, Vegetable, and Physical Activity Guideline Adherence and Metabolic Syndrome in El Banco por Salud.

Adherence to dietary and physical activity recommendations has been associated with reductions in morbidity and mortality. The association between baseline adherence to fruit, vegetable, and physical activity guidelines and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in El Banco por Salud (El Banco) was examined. El Banco is a wellness biobank for Latino individuals affiliated with partnered Federally Qualified Health Centers in southern Arizona. Study participants (n = 972) were 65% female, 62.3% foreign-born, 56.3% obese, 29.2% food insecure, and with an average age of 51.3 years. Adherence scores were developed using baseline questionnaires for fruits and vegetable consumption and self-reported physical activity. Adherence was low in those fully meeting guidelines for fruit, vegetable, and physical activity at 14.6%, 37.5%, and 23.5%, respectively. Roughly 65% (n = 630) had ≥3 cardiometabolic risk factors. Large waist circumference was the most prevalent risk factor at 77.9%. Adherence to physical activity recommendations differed by MetS status with 32.8% without MetS reporting ≥150 min of physical activity per week compared to 18.5% in those with MetS (p < 0.001). There were no significant associations with adherence to any guidelines and MetS in the fully adjusted model. Overall, in this sample guideline adherence was low and the cardiometabolic risk factors prevalence was high.