Metabolic signature on migrants and their relationship to patterns of consumption and metabolic syndrome: an epidemiological approach to elucidate the effects of diet

Abstract

Observational studies have contributed to consolidate the idea that immigrants generally have different rates of morbidity and mortality than natives. Most studies have been focused on the effects of international migration since the risk factors tend to be more uniformly distributed within a single country. However, Brazil stands out for having extensive territory, regions with distinctive geographical, social and cultural differences and also different rates of mortality and morbidity from chronic diseases. Despite the clear role of the diet on modulating risk for chronic diseases, the scientific evidence are inconclusive and contradictory. The metabolic syndrome, which has become nowadays a serious public health problem, gathers with metabolic abnormalities, including dyslipidemia and insulin resistance, cardiovascular risk markers. The study named ISA Capital found that only one third of the population was born in São Paulo: thus, we propose to investigate whether the pattern of food consumption differs according to place of birth (internal migration), how this pattern is reflected in metabolic profile and its association with metabolic syndrome and its components, as well as its mediation by genetic variants related to the studied metabolic cycles. Innovative features such as metabolomics and multivariate data analysis, such as structural equation modeling (SEM) will be used. The metabolomics offers a potential in the area of nutritional assessment, by measuring the relative concentration of endogenous small molecules in biological fluids, which characterize changes in metabolism and helps to reveal the metabolic state of biological systems in response to the environment (internal and external); multivariate statistical technique has as a main objective to expand the explanatory ability to explain inter-related issues. Secondary data, already collected, will be used, from the Survey of Health of São Paulo (ISA-Capital 2008) will be using. This study has a cross-sectional, population-based, through a household survey design. Socioeconomic, dietary and biochemical data from 592 individuals will be used, and, for the metabolomic profile analysis by mass spectrometry, a subsample (n = 160), due to the high cost of analysis. It is hoped that this project, by bringing together perspectives enshrined in epidemiology (studies in migrants) with a comprehensive and innovative vision of food intake, metabolism and statistics, obtaining scientific evidence for the understanding of relevant issues in nutrition and health and to public health. It also has the advantage that, when using a secondary database, optimizes public resources already allocated previously. (AU)