Goonesekera, Sunali D.Fang, Shona CPiccolo, Rebecca S.Florez, JoseMcKinlay, John B.2015-05-042015Goonesekera, Sunali D., Shona C. Fang, Rebecca S. Piccolo, Jose C. Florez, and John B. McKinlay. 2015. “Biogeographic Ancestry Is Associated with Higher Total Body Adiposity among African-American Females: The Boston Area Community Health Survey.” PLoS ONE 10 (4): e0122808. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0122808. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0122808.1932-6203http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:15034794Objectives: The prevalence of obesity is disproportionately higher among African-Americans and Hispanics as compared to whites. We investigated the role of biogeographic ancestry (BGA) on adiposity and changes in adiposity in the Boston Area Community Health Survey. Methods: We evaluated associations between BGA, assessed via Ancestry Informative Markers, and adiposity (body mass index (BMI), percent body fat (PBF), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)) and changes in adiposity over 7 years for BMI and WHR and 2.5 years for PBF, per 10% greater proportion of BGA using multivariable linear regression. We also examined effect-modification by demographic and socio-behavioral variables. Results: We observed positive associations between West-African ancestry and cross-sectional BMI (percent difference=0.62%; 95% CI: 0.04%, 1.20%), and PBF (β=0.35; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.58). We also observed significant effect-modification of the association between West-African ancestry and BMI by gender (p-interaction: <0.002) with a substantially greater association in women. We observed no main associations between Native-American ancestry and adiposity but observed significant effect-modification of the association with BMI by diet (p-interaction: <0.003) with inverse associations among participants with higher Healthy Eating Scores. No associations were observed between BGA and changes in adiposity over time. Conclusion: Findings support that West-African ancestry may contribute to high prevalence of total body adiposity among African-Americans, particularly African-American women.en-USJournal Article2015-05-0410.1371/journal.pone.0122808