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The geographical distribution of the family-genetic risk score for drug use disorder in Sweden and its co-localization with areas of social deprivation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2024

Kenneth S. Kendler*
Affiliation:
Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
Ali Mansourian
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden
Pengxiang Zhao
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden
Henrik Ohlsson
Affiliation:
Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden
Kathleen Stewart
Affiliation:
Center for Geospatial Information System, Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Jan Sundquist
Affiliation:
Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
Bo Malmberg
Affiliation:
Department of Geography of Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Kristina Sundquist
Affiliation:
Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
*
Corresponding author: Kenneth S. Kendler; Email: Kenneth.Kendler@vcuhealth.org
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Abstract

Background

Drug use Disorder (DUD), the risk for which is substantially influenced by both genetic and social factors, is geographically concentrated in high-risk regions. An important step toward understanding this pattern is to examine geographical distributions of the genetic liability to DUD and a key demographic risk factor – social deprivation.

Methods

We calculated the mean family genetic risk score (FGRS) for DUD ((FGRSDUD) and social deprivation for each of the 5983 areas Demographic Statistical Areas (DeSO) for all of Sweden and used geospatial techniques to analyze and map these factors.

Results

Using 2018 data, substantial spatial heterogeneity was seen in the distribution of the genetic risk for DUD in Sweden as a whole and in its three major urban centers which was confirmed by hot-spot analyses. Across DeSOs, FGRSDUD and s.d. levels were substantially but imperfectly correlated (r = + 0.63), with more scattering at higher FGRSDUD and s.d. scores. Joint mapping across DeSOs for FGRSDUD and s.d. revealed a diversity of patterns across Sweden. The stability of the distributions of FGRSDUD and s.d. in DeSOs within Sweden over the years 2012–2018 was quite high.

Conclusions

The geographical distribution of the genetic risk to DUD is quite variable in Sweden. DeSO levels of s.d. and FRGSDUD were substantially correlated but also disassociated in a number of regions. The observed patterns were largely consistent with known trends in the human geography of Sweden. This effort lays the groundwork for further studies of the sources of geographic variation in rates of DUD.

Information

Type
Original Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. The Mean FGRSDUD by DeSO in 2018 in the Country of Sweden and Its Three Largest Urban Areas – Stockholm, Gothenberg, and Malmö. For each DeSO, we take the mean for all individuals aged 15 to 35 who were born in Sweden to Swedish born parents. The mean FGRSDUD is by definition, 0.00 and for this figure is divided into 5 levels, very low – green, low – purple, intermediate – orange, high – yellow and very high – blue. The national map also contains bodies of water and major roads and names of a number of prominent cities. The insert maps for the three largest cities, also indicates, by hashing, the areas of urbanization.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Hot and Cold Spot Analysis of the Mean FGRSDUD By Deso in 2018 in the Country of Sweden and Its Three Largest Urban Areas – Stockholm, Gothenberg, and Malmö. We divide each DeSO into 7 possible categories by Hot spot analysis. White indicated no significant deviation in the mean FGRSDUD from population expectation. Light orange, dark orange and red indicate that the DeSO represents a hot spot with a higher than expected rate of FGRSDUD in the DeSO with, respectively, 90, 95 and 99% confidence. Grey, light blue and dark blue indicate that the DeSO represents a cold spot with a lower than expected rate of FGRSDUD in the DeSO with, respectively, 90, 95 and 99% confidence.

Figure 2

Figure 3. A Scatter-Plot from all DESOs in Sweden of the mean FGRSDUD on the X-Axis and the mean Social Deprivation Score on the Y-axis. The Pearson correlation between these two variables equals +0.63).

Figure 3

Figure 4. Mean FGRSDUD and Social Deprivation By DeSO in 2018 in the Country of Sweden and Its Three Largest Urban Areas. Each DeSO is assigned to one of 9 possible categories as a function of its Mean FGRSDUD and Social Deprivation score divided into 3 categories of low, medium, and high. The FGRS score is indexes by the shade of red and the level of Deprivation by the shade of blue. So as seen by the color array in the right lower section of the figure, areas of high FGRSDUD and Social Deprivation are marked by dark purple. DeSOs with high FGRSDUD and low Social Deprivation and low FGRSDUD and high Social Deprivation are colored dark red and dark blue respectively.

Figure 4

Figure 5. Mean FGRSDUD and Social Deprivation By DeSO in the Country of Sweden in 2012, 2015 and 2018. For the coding of level of FGRSDUD and Social Deprivation by DeSO in this figure, see the legend of Fig. 4.

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