Browsing by Author "Gershim Asik"

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    Cardiometabolic disease risk factors in pre- and postmenopausal women from four sub-Saharan African countries: A cross-sectional study
    (2023-06) Raylton P. Chikwati; Nasrin Goolam Mahyoodeen; Nicole G. Jaff; Michele Ramsay; Lisa K. Micklesfield; Alisha N. Wade; Godfred Agongo; Gershim Asik; Solomon S.R. Choma; Palwende R. Boua; Jaya A. George; Nigel J. Crowther
    Objective: To compare the risk factors for cardiometabolic disease between pre- and postmenopausal women from four sub-Saharan African countries. Study design: This cross-sectional study included 3609 women (1740 premenopausal and 1869 postmenopausal) from sites in Ghana (Navrongo), Burkina Faso (Nanoro), Kenya (Nairobi), and South Africa (Soweto and Dikgale). Demographic, anthropometric and cardiometabolic variables were compared between pre- and postmenopausal women, within and across sites using multivariable regression analyses. The sites represent populations at different stages of the health transition, with those in Ghana and Burkina Faso being rural, whilst those in Kenya and South Africa are more urbanised. Main outcome measures: Anthropometric and cardiometabolic variables. Results: The prevalence rates of risk factors for cardiometabolic disease were higher in South (Soweto and Dikgale) and East (Nairobi) Africa than in West Africa (Nanoro and Navrongo), irrespective of menopausal status. Regression models in combined West African populations demonstrated that postmenopausal women had a larger waist circumference (β = 1.28 (95 % CI: 0.58; 1.98) cm), log subcutaneous fat (β =0.15 (0.10; 0.19)) diastolic (β = 3.04 (1.47; 4.62) mm Hg) and log systolic (β = 0.04 (0.02; 0.06)) blood pressure, log carotid intima media thickness (β = 0.03 (0.01; 0.06)), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (β = 0.14 (0.04; 0.23) mmol/L) and log triglyceride (β= 0.10 (0.04; 0.16)) levels than premenopausal women. No such differences were observed in the South and East African women. Conclusions: Menopause-related differences in risk factors for cardiometabolic disease were prominent in West but not East or South African study sites. These novel findings should inform cardiometabolic disease prevention strategies in midlife women specific to rural and urban and peri-urban locations in sub-Saharan Africa.
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    Meta-analysis of sub-Saharan African studies provides insights into genetic architecture of lipid traits
    (2022-05-11) Ananyo Choudhury; Jean-Tristan Brandenburg; Tinashe Chikowore; Dhriti Sengupta; Palwende Romuald Boua; Nigel J. Crowther; Godfred Agongo; Gershim Asik; F. Xavier Gómez-Olivé; Isaac Kisiangani; Eric Maimela; Matshane Masemola-Maphutha; Lisa K. Micklesfield; Engelbert A. Nonterah; Shane A. Norris; Hermann Sorgho; Halidou Tinto; Stephen Tollman; Sarah E. Graham; Cristen J. Willer; AWI-Gen study; H3Africa Consortium; Scott Hazelhurst; Michèle Ramsay
    Genetic associations for lipid traits have identified hundreds of variants with clear differences across European, Asian and African studies. Based on a sub-Saharan-African GWAS for lipid traits in the population cross-sectional AWI-Gen cohort (N = 10,603) we report a novel LDL-C association in the GATB region (P-value=1.56 × 10−8). Meta-analysis with four other African cohorts (N = 23,718) provides supporting evidence for the LDL-C association with the GATB/FHIP1A region and identifies a novel triglyceride association signal close to the FHIT gene (P-value =2.66 × 10−8). Our data enable fine-mapping of several well-known lipid-trait loci including LDLR, PMFBP1 and LPA. The transferability of signals detected in two large global studies (GLGC and PAGE) consistently improves with an increase in the size of the African replication cohort. Polygenic risk score analysis shows increased predictive accuracy for LDL-C levels with the narrowing of genetic distance between the discovery dataset and our cohort. Novel discovery is enhanced with the inclusion of African data.