Surnames and ancestry in Brazil

The importance of geographic and sociodemographic aspects in the characterization of mucopolysaccharidoses: a case series from Ceará state (Northeast Brazil)

Geographic and sociodemographic aspects may influence the natural history and epidemiology of mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS). The main objective in this work was to evaluate the clinical, molecular, and geographic profile of MPS in a population from Ceará (Northeast Brazil). For this, we have performed a descriptive cross-sectional study based on clinical evaluation, interviews with patients and/or family members, and review of medical records of 76 MPS patients. MPS II was the most common type, with the most affected individuals presenting missense pathogenic variants. Patients with MPS I proved to be the most severe clinical phenotype, presenting the first symptoms (mean: 7.1 months; SD = 4.5) and being diagnosed earlier (2.2 years; SD = 2.1) in comparison with the other types. In addition, we have shown that 13 individuals with MPS VI were born of consanguineous marriages in small, nearby cities, in a place where geographical isolation, consanguinity, and clusters of genetic diseases were previously reported. Ten of these individuals (at least, seven different families) presented a rare pathogenic variant in the ARSB gene, c.1143-8T > G in homozygosity, previously reported only among Iberian and South American patients. The results presented here provide a comprehensive picture of MPS in an important state of the Brazilian Northeast, a region that concentrates many risk factors for rare genetic diseases, such as endogamy, inbreeding, and reproductive isolation. We discuss the possible evolutionary processes and biosocial dynamics that can help to explain this finding in terms of population medical genetics and public health.

The socio-colonial history of Surinamese surnames applied to a validated surname list to identify ancestry in health research

Around half of the population of Suriname, who are mainly of African and South Asian descent, migrated to the Netherlands at the end of the previous century, where they face higher perinatal and maternal mortality and up to 5 years lower life expectancy than European-Dutch. Analyses by ancestry are needed to address these inequalities, but the law prohibits registration by ancestry. Therefore, a list of Surinamese surnames was compiled and validated to identify the largest groups, African-Surinamese or South Asian-Surinamese ancestry in health research. A complete database of Surinamese surnames was provided by the National Population Registry of Suriname. Surname recognition by researchers of Surinamese ancestry was used. Disagreement was resolved using historical registers and through discussion. The list was further validated against contemporary lists of Surinamese surnames with self-defined ancestry, obtained during population and clinical studies in Suriname and the Netherlands. All 71,529 Surinamese surnames were encoded, as African-Surinamese (34%), South Asian-Surinamese (18%), Brazilian or other Iberian (17%), Indonesian-Surinamese (13%), Chinese-Surinamese (5%), First Nation (2%), and other (10%). Compared to self-defined ancestry, South Asian-Surinamese surname coding had 100% sensitivity, 99.8% specificity, and 99.9% accuracy. For African-Surinamese, who may have Dutch surnames, these values depended on geocoding. With a known Surinamese origin, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were, respectively, 97.3%, 100%, and 98.6%, but without this information, there was interference of African-Surinamese with European-Dutch surnames in the Dutch validation sample. In conclusion, the Surinamese Surname List has a high accuracy in identifying persons of Surinamese ancestry. This quick, inexpensive, and nonintrusive method, which is unaffected by response bias, might be a valuable tool in public health research to help address the profound health disparities by ancestry.

Methods for retrospectively improving race/ethnicity data quality: a scoping review

Improving race and ethnicity (hereafter, race/ethnicity) data quality is imperative to ensure underserved populations are represented in data sets used to identify health disparities and inform health care policy. We performed a scoping review of methods that retrospectively improve race/ethnicity classification in secondary data sets. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, searches were conducted in the MEDLINE, Embase, and Web of Science Core Collection databases in July 2022. A total of 2 441 abstracts were dually screened, 453 full-text articles were reviewed, and 120 articles were included. Study characteristics were extracted and described in a narrative analysis. Six main method types for improving race/ethnicity data were identified: expert review (n = 9; 8%), name lists (n = 27, 23%), name algorithms (n = 55, 46%), machine learning (n = 14, 12%), data linkage (n = 9, 8%), and other (n = 6, 5%). The main racial/ethnic groups targeted for classification were Asian (n = 56, 47%) and White (n = 51, 43%). Some form of validation evaluation was included in 86 articles (72%). We discuss the strengths and limitations of different method types and potential harms of identified methods. Innovative methods are needed to better identify racial/ethnic subgroups and further validation studies. Accurately collecting and reporting disaggregated data by race/ethnicity are critical to address the systematic missingness of relevant demographic data that can erroneously guide policymaking and hinder the effectiveness of health care practices and intervention.

Bulsarapp: Interactive Visual Analysis for Surname Trend Exploration

The study of surnames for a given population, together with their distribution and spatial patterns identification, has been a long-standing problem in the fields of human biology, public health, and social sciences. The ancestry inferred from surname information can be a useful means to understand the dynamics of human populations. This knowledge allows us to characterize geographically the ethnicity of populations, and to understand the complex relationships between identity, migration, and health issues in a demographic view. However, in most cases, a detailed geolocalization of this data can be a daunting task. We propose a visual analytic tool that summarizes the heterogeneous surname and geographic information collected from Argentinean electoral rolls. This tool allows a massive data analysis, and facilitates interdisciplinary studies about population dynamics related to ancestry, migration, and health. It also offers an easy-to-use interface that allows interactive exploration of isonymy and surname origins, their distribution, and spatial trends in a high population density context.

Validity and reproducibility of a Food Frequency Questionnaire for German descendants living in Brazil

ABSTRACT Objective This study evaluated reproducibility, relative validity, using a 24-hour recall questionnaire as a reference standard, and estimated calibration factors for a food frequency questionnaire adapted for use with German descendants living in Brazil. Methods The target population consisted of 50 volunteers, of both genders, aged over 20 years, living in a German colonization city in southern Brazil. The food frequency questionnaire was applied twice, in the first and third months of the investigation. During this period, three 24-hour recalls were applied, with an interval of one month between them. Reproducibility was estimated by the intraclass correlation coefficient. Validity was tested by the intraclass correlation coefficient, weighted kappa test and Bland-Altman method. Calibration factors were estimated using linear regression. Results Among the food frequency questionnaires, there was a strong correlation for energy and most of the nutrients corrected for energy. There was a weak correlation between a food frequency questionnaire and a 24-hour dietary recall. However, the exact concordance in the categorization in tertiles among the instruments ranged from 28% (vitamin A) to 52% (fiber and potassium). Gross values of the food frequency questionnaire were reduced with the calibration and approached the consumption data estimated by the 24-hour dietary recall. Conclusions The food frequency questionnaire showed good reproducibility, however, weak correlation with the 24-hour dietary recall. The calibration of the data obtained by the food frequency questionnaire brought them closer to the reference method.

Trends in Brazilian Congress of Soil Science publications: An analysis of the 1947-2017 period

The Brazilian Congress of Soil Science (Congresso Brasileiro de Ciência do Solo - CBCS) is the oldest soil science event in South America. The CBCS had 29,643 participants and 23,621 publications in 30 thematic areas between 1947 and 2017. There were only five editions of the CBCS (1947-1979) in which Soil Fertility did not produce the highest number of papers. Standardization of Soil Study Methods and Representation/Soil Teaching was the most prolific in one year, and Soil Genesis, Morphology, and Cartography produced the most papers in the other four years. Subsequently, the area renamed as Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition had the highest number of papers. By grouping papers into the scientific divisions of the Brazilian Society of Soil Science (Sociedade Brasileira de Ciência do Solo - SBCS), we verify that the division of Soil Use and Management had the most papers in most congresses. In 2017, the number of papers and the number of male researchers in the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development were associated for each thematic area. The trends in CBCS publications were influenced by the natural and historic-economic characteristics of the country, in addition to changes that occurred in SBCS, universities, research institutes, and legislation.

An invincible memory: what surname analysis tells us about history, health and population medical genetics in the Brazilian Northeast

Several studies have shown that the Brazilian Northeast is a region with high rates of inbreeding as well as a high incidence of autosomal recessive diseases. The elaboration of public health policies focused on the epidemiological surveillance of congenital anomalies and rare genetic diseases in this region is urgently needed. However, the vast territory, socio-demographic heterogeneity, economic difficulties and low number of professionals with expertise in medical genetics make strategic planning a challenging task. Surnames can be compared to a genetic system with multiple neutral alleles and allow some approximation of population structure. Here, surname analysis of more than 37 million people was combined with health and socio-demographic indicators covering all 1794 municipalities of the nine states of the region. The data distribution showed a heterogeneous spatial pattern (Global Moran Index, GMI = 0.58; p < 0.001), with higher isonymy rates in the east of the region and the highest rates in the Quilombo dos Palmares region - the largest conglomerate of escaped slaves in Latin America. A positive correlation was found between the isonymy index and the frequency of live births with congenital anomalies (r = 0.268; p < 0.001), and the two indicators were spatially correlated (GMI = 0.50; p < 0.001). With this approach, quantitative information on the genetic structure of the Brazilian Northeast population was obtained, which may represent an economical and useful tool for decision-making in the medical field.

Network analysis of the social and demographic influences on name choice within the UK (1838-2016)

Chosen names reflect changes in societal values, personal tastes and cultural diversity. Vogues in name usage can be easily shown on a case by case basis, by plotting the rise and fall in their popularity over time. However, individual name choices are not made in isolation and trends in naming are better understood as group-level phenomena. Here we use network analysis to examine onomastic (name) datasets in order to explore the influences on name choices within the UK over the last 170 years. Using a large representative sample of approximately 22 million forenames from England and Wales given between 1838 and 2014, along with a complete population sample of births registered between 1996 and 2016, we demonstrate how trends in name usage can be visualised as network graphs. By exploring the structure of these graphs various patterns of name use become apparent, a consequence of external social forces, such as migration, operating in concert with internal mechanisms of change. In general, we show that the topology of network graphs can reveal naming vogues, and that naming vogues in part reflect social and demographic changes. Many name choices are consistent with a self-correcting feedback loop, whereby rarer names become common because there are virtues perceived in their rarity, yet with these perceived virtues lost upon increasing commonality. Towards the present day, we can speculate that the comparatively greater range of media, freedom of movement, and ability to maintain globally-distributed social networks increases the number of possible names, but also ensures they may more quickly be perceived as commonplace. Consequently, contemporary naming vogues are relatively short-lived with many name choices appearing a balance struck between recognisability and rarity. The data are available in multiple forms including via an easy-to-use web interface at http://demos.flourish.studio/namehistory.

Ethnicity estimation using family naming practices

This paper examines the association between given and family names and self-ascribed ethnicity as classified by the 2011 Census of Population for England and Wales. Using Census data in an innovative way under the new Office for National Statistics (ONS) Secure Research Service (SRS; previously the ONS Virtual Microdata Laboratory, VML), we investigate how bearers of a full range of given and family names assigned themselves to 2011 Census categories, using a names classification tool previously described in this journal. Based on these results, we develop a follow-up ethnicity estimation tool and describe how the tool may be used to observe changing relations between naming practices and ethnic identities as a facet of social integration and cosmopolitanism in an increasingly diverse society.