Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Prior work in predominantly European ancestry populations has explained how the risk associated with demographic, lifestyle, and health factors differs with underlying genetic susceptibility to type 2 diabetes (T2D), but less is known about these relationships in Black Americans. METHODS: We used covariate-adjusted logistic regression models of T2D to examine interactions between a published trans-ancestry derived T2D polygenic risk score (PRS) and various demographic, lifestyle, and health-related factors among 28,251 self-identified Black Americans from six cohort studies. RESULTS: The results are generally consistent with prior work in White populations. The PRS showed a significant interaction with body mass index, with a greater effect on T2D risk in individuals who were leaner (pinteraction = 0.038). CONCLUSION: These results contribute to understanding the relationship between genetics and other T2D risk factors in Black Americans who have a high burden of T2D, potentially informing targeted prevention strategies.