GENOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL RISK FACTORS FOR CARDIOMETABOLIC DISEASE IN AFRICANS (KENYA) 2014, African Wits-INDEPTH Partnership for genetic studies on the role of the genome and environment in body composition, as a risk factor for cardiometabolic disease 2

The Genomic and environmental risk factor for cardiometabolic disease in Africans (AWI-Gen) project is a collaborative study between the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the INDEPTH Network funded under the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) initiative. The H3Africa is a ground-breaking initiative to build institutional and individual capacity to undertake genetic and genomic studies in the African region. This collaboration, involves five INDEPTH sites i.e. 1) Navrongo - Ghana; 2) Nanoro - Burkina Faso; 3&4) Agincourt and Digkale - South Africa; and 5) Nairobi - Kenya) plus the Soweto-based birth-to-twenty cohort. The work in Kenya will be undertaken in the Nairobi Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (NUHDSS) run by APHRC. The AWI-Gen project aims to understand the interplay between genetic, epigenetic and environmental risk factors for obesity and related cardiometabolic diseases (CMD) in sub-Saharan Africa. The project capitalizes on the unique strengths of existing longitudinal cohorts and well-established health and demographic surveillance systems (HDSS) run by the partner institutions. The six study sites represent geographic and social variability of African populations which are also at different stages of the demographic and epidemiological transitions. The study has two components: i) to understand the African population genetic structure and ii) to determine the association between genetic factors and obesity in determining cardiometabolic risk and the effect of environmental factors on this relationship.

In this application, we seek ethical approval for the Kenya study only. The other partners will seek approval from the appropriate ethics review authorities in their countries.