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Jean G. Ford

Bio: Jean G. Ford is an academic researcher from Brooklyn Hospital Center. The author has contributed to research in topics: Randomized controlled trial & Population. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 6 publications receiving 513 citations.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
13 Jun 2014-Science
TL;DR: Pre-Columbian genetic substructure is recapitulated in the indigenous ancestry of admixed mestizo individuals across the country, and two independently phenotyped cohorts of Mexicans and Mexican Americans showed a significant association between subcontinental ancestry and lung function.
Abstract: Mexico harbors great cultural and ethnic diversity, yet fine-scale patterns of human genome-wide variation from this region remain largely uncharacterized. We studied genomic variation within Mexico from over 1000 individuals representing 20 indigenous and 11 mestizo populations. We found striking genetic stratification among indigenous populations within Mexico at varying degrees of geographic isolation. Some groups were as differentiated as Europeans are from East Asians. Pre-Columbian genetic substructure is recapitulated in the indigenous ancestry of admixed mestizo individuals across the country. Furthermore, two independently phenotyped cohorts of Mexicans and Mexican Americans showed a significant association between subcontinental ancestry and lung function. Thus, accounting for fine-scale ancestry patterns is critical for medical and population genetic studies within Mexico, in Mexican-descent populations, and likely in many other populations worldwide.

416 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the effect of patient navigation on increasing colorectal cancer screening adherence among older African Americans in a community-based randomized controlled trial, and found that patient navigation was associated with increased CRC screening adherence.
Abstract: Purpose In recent years, colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates have increased steadily in the USA, though racial and ethnic disparities persist. In a community-based randomized controlled trial, we investigated the effect of patient navigation on increasing CRC screening adherence among older African Americans.

59 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results suggest that patient navigation for mammography screening should focus on women who are not up to date on their screening, and patient navigation among urban African American Medicare beneficiaries increased self-reported mammography utilization.
Abstract: BACKGROUND There is growing evidence that patient navigation improves breast cancer screening rates; however, there are limited efficacy studies of its effect among African American older adult women

57 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: Social context contributes to the understanding of racial disparities in physical inactivity among urban low-income Blacks and Whites living in similar social context.
Abstract: Objective : The objective of the study was to determine whether race disparities in physical inactivity are present among urban low income Blacks and Whites living in similar social context. Design : This analysis included Black and White respondents ( > 18 years) from the Exploring Health Disparities in Integrated Communities- Southwest Baltimore (EHDIC-SWB; N =1350) Study and the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS; N =67790). Respondents who reported no levels of moderate or vigorous physical activity, during leisure time, over a usual week were considered physically inactive. Results : After controlling for confounders, Blacks had higher adjusted odds of physical inactivity compared to Whites in the national sample (odds ratio [OR]=1.40; 95%confidence interval [CI] =1.30–1.51). In EHDIC-SWB, Blacks and Whites had a similar odds of physical inactivity (OR=1.09; 95% CI .86–1.40). Conclusion : Social context contributes to our understanding of racial disparities in physical inactivity. ( Ethn Dis. 2014;24[3]:363–369)

38 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Rates of prostate cancer screening among African American men vary by level of educational attainment; beliefs concerning cancer fatalism help explain this gradient.
Abstract: We examined the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) cancer screening among older African American men. We analyzed baseline data from a sample of 485 community-dwelling African American men who participated in the Cancer Prevention and Treatment Demonstration Trial. The outcome was receipt of PSA screening within the past year. SES was measured using income and educational attainment. Sequential multivariate logistic regression models were performed to study whether health care access, patient–provider relationship, and cancer fatalism mediated the relationship between SES and PSA screening. Higher educational attainment was significantly associated with higher odds of PSA screening in the past year (odds ratio (OR) 2.08 for college graduate compared to less than high school graduate, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.03–4.24); income was not. Health care access and patient–provider communication did not alter the relationship between education and screening; however, beliefs regarding cancer fatalism partially mediated the observed relationship. Rates of prostate cancer screening among African American men vary by level of educational attainment; beliefs concerning cancer fatalism help explain this gradient. Understanding the determinants of cancer fatalism is a critical next step in building interventions that seek to ensure equitable access to prostate cancer screening.

9 citations


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TL;DR: It is demonstrated that scores inferred from European GWASs are biased by genetic drift in other populations even when choosing the same causal variants and that biases in any direction are possible and unpredictable.
Abstract: The vast majority of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) are performed in Europeans, and their transferability to other populations is dependent on many factors (e.g., linkage disequilibrium, allele frequencies, genetic architecture). As medical genomics studies become increasingly large and diverse, gaining insights into population history and consequently the transferability of disease risk measurement is critical. Here, we disentangle recent population history in the widely used 1000 Genomes Project reference panel, with an emphasis on populations underrepresented in medical studies. To examine the transferability of single-ancestry GWASs, we used published summary statistics to calculate polygenic risk scores for eight well-studied phenotypes. We identify directional inconsistencies in all scores; for example, height is predicted to decrease with genetic distance from Europeans, despite robust anthropological evidence that West Africans are as tall as Europeans on average. To gain deeper quantitative insights into GWAS transferability, we developed a complex trait coalescent-based simulation framework considering effects of polygenicity, causal allele frequency divergence, and heritability. As expected, correlations between true and inferred risk are typically highest in the population from which summary statistics were derived. We demonstrate that scores inferred from European GWASs are biased by genetic drift in other populations even when choosing the same causal variants and that biases in any direction are possible and unpredictable. This work cautions that summarizing findings from large-scale GWASs may have limited portability to other populations using standard approaches and highlights the need for generalized risk prediction methods and the inclusion of more diverse individuals in medical genomics.

1,073 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This document updates the colorectal cancer screening recommendations of the U.S. Multi-Society Task Force of Colorectals and suggests that the Septin9 serum assay (Epigenomics, Seattle, Wash) not be used for screening.

522 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors studied the genetic ancestry of 5,269 self-described African Americans, 8,663 Latinos, and 148,789 European Americans who are 23andMe customers and showed that the legacy of these historical interactions is visible in the genetic lineage of present-day Americans.
Abstract: Over the past 500 years, North America has been the site of ongoing mixing of Native Americans, European settlers, and Africans (brought largely by the trans-Atlantic slave trade), shaping the early history of what became the United States. We studied the genetic ancestry of 5,269 self-described African Americans, 8,663 Latinos, and 148,789 European Americans who are 23andMe customers and show that the legacy of these historical interactions is visible in the genetic ancestry of present-day Americans. We document pervasive mixed ancestry and asymmetrical male and female ancestry contributions in all groups studied. We show that regional ancestry differences reflect historical events, such as early Spanish colonization, waves of immigration from many regions of Europe, and forced relocation of Native Americans within the US. This study sheds light on the fine-scale differences in ancestry within and across the United States and informs our understanding of the relationship between racial and ethnic identities and genetic ancestry.

484 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Maanasa Raghavan1, Matthias Steinrücken2, Matthias Steinrücken3, Kelley Harris3, Stephan Schiffels4, Simon Rasmussen5, Michael DeGiorgio6, Anders Albrechtsen1, Cristina Valdiosera7, Cristina Valdiosera1, María C. Ávila-Arcos8, María C. Ávila-Arcos1, Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas1, Anders Eriksson9, Anders Eriksson10, Ida Moltke1, Mait Metspalu11, Mait Metspalu12, Julian R. Homburger8, Jeffrey D. Wall13, Omar E. Cornejo14, J. Víctor Moreno-Mayar1, Thorfinn Sand Korneliussen1, Tracey Pierre1, Morten Rasmussen8, Morten Rasmussen1, Paula F. Campos1, Paula F. Campos15, Peter de Barros Damgaard1, Morten E. Allentoft1, John Lindo16, Ene Metspalu11, Ene Metspalu12, Ricardo Rodríguez-Varela17, Josefina Mansilla, Celeste Henrickson18, Andaine Seguin-Orlando1, Helena Malmström19, Thomas W. Stafford1, Thomas W. Stafford20, Suyash Shringarpure8, Andrés Moreno-Estrada8, Monika Karmin12, Monika Karmin11, Kristiina Tambets11, Anders Bergström4, Yali Xue4, Vera Warmuth21, Andrew D. Friend10, Joy S. Singarayer22, Paul J. Valdes23, Francois Balloux, Ilán Leboreiro, Jose Luis Vera, Héctor Rangel-Villalobos24, Davide Pettener25, Donata Luiselli25, Loren G. Davis26, Evelyne Heyer27, Christoph P. E. Zollikofer28, Marcia S. Ponce de León28, Colin Smith7, Vaughan Grimes29, Vaughan Grimes30, Kelly-Anne Pike29, Michael Deal29, Benjamin T. Fuller31, Bernardo Arriaza32, Vivien G. Standen32, Maria F. Luz, Francois Ricaut33, Niede Guidon, Ludmila P. Osipova34, Ludmila P. Osipova35, Mikhail Voevoda35, Mikhail Voevoda34, Olga L. Posukh35, Olga L. Posukh34, Oleg Balanovsky, Maria Lavryashina36, Yuri Bogunov, Elza Khusnutdinova35, Elza Khusnutdinova37, Marina Gubina, Elena Balanovska, Sardana A. Fedorova38, Sergey Litvinov35, Sergey Litvinov11, Boris Malyarchuk35, Miroslava Derenko35, M. J. Mosher39, David Archer40, Jerome S. Cybulski41, Jerome S. Cybulski42, Barbara Petzelt, Joycelynn Mitchell, Rosita Worl, Paul Norman8, Peter Parham8, Brian M. Kemp14, Toomas Kivisild11, Toomas Kivisild10, Chris Tyler-Smith4, Manjinder S. Sandhu4, Manjinder S. Sandhu43, Michael H. Crawford44, Richard Villems12, Richard Villems11, David Glenn Smith45, Michael R. Waters46, Ted Goebel46, John R. Johnson47, Ripan S. Malhi16, Mattias Jakobsson19, David J. Meltzer1, David J. Meltzer48, Andrea Manica10, Richard Durbin4, Carlos Bustamante8, Yun S. Song3, Rasmus Nielsen3, Eske Willerslev1 
21 Aug 2015-Science
TL;DR: The results suggest that there has been gene flow between some Native Americans from both North and South America and groups related to East Asians and Australo-Melanesians, the latter possibly through an East Asian route that might have included ancestors of modern Aleutian Islanders.
Abstract: How and when the Americas were populated remains contentious. Using ancient and modern genome-wide data, we found that the ancestors of all present-day Native Americans, including Athabascans and Amerindians, entered the Americas as a single migration wave from Siberia no earlier than 23 thousand years ago (ka) and after no more than an 8000-year isolation period in Beringia. After their arrival to the Americas, ancestral Native Americans diversified into two basal genetic branches around 13 ka, one that is now dispersed across North and South America and the other restricted to North America. Subsequent gene flow resulted in some Native Americans sharing ancestry with present-day East Asians (including Siberians) and, more distantly, Australo-Melanesians. Putative "Paleoamerican" relict populations, including the historical Mexican Pericues and South American Fuego-Patagonians, are not directly related to modern Australo-Melanesians as suggested by the Paleoamerican Model.

459 citations