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Background Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) have historically been erased from public health and research data due to smaller population size and mis-categorization. This became a bigger problem during the COVID-19 pandemic where NHPIs were disproportionately impacted, yet this was largely hidden because NHPI data were grouped with Asian Americans or aggregated into the Other category. This study assesses the impact of COVID-19 on the NHPI community as well as their willingness to participate in clinical trials. Methods This cross-sectional study took place between April 2021 and January 2022. Individuals in San Diego County who identified as NHPI were eligible to complete the survey on behalf of their households. The primary outcomes are willingness to get vaccinated and to participate in clinical trials as measured by Likert scales. Results Of the 130 households (representing 605 individuals) that responded to the survey, the majority were Samoan (53%) and Chamorro (30%) with an average household size of 4.6 individuals. Most (88%) households had one or more essential workers. The biggest COVID-19 challenges for respondents were paying for rent or food, caring for sick relatives, and dealing with lost jobs. Nearly half of households relied on support from community-based organizations, especially for meals/groceries, emotional/spiritual/mental health support and COVID-19 resources/vaccines. There was a stark contrast between willingness to get vaccinated (67% had gotten their second vaccine dose) and willingness to participate in a clinical trial (56% not at all likely to participate). This paralleled the difference in having a great deal of trust in COVID-19 information from doctors (69%) compared to researchers (37%). Conclusions This paper describes the gap between policy and practice, specifically a mismatch of available resources (for example, personal protective equipment and free COVID-19 tests from workplaces and the federal government) to those at disproportionate risk of exposure and severe outcomes during a pandemic. It also discusses the benefits of having local community-based organizations to help fill gaps in the public health system. Future research is needed to explore the reasons for lower levels of trust in researchers and less willingness to participate in clinical trials, which has implications for equity in research.

Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island) is one of the most isolated inhabited places in the world. It has captured the imagination of many owing to its archaeological record, which includes iconic megalithic statues called moai 1 . Two prominent contentions have arisen from the extensive study of Rapa Nui. First, the history of the Rapanui has been presented as a warning tale of resource overexploitation that would have culminated in a major population collapse—the ‘ecocide’ theory 2 – 4 . Second, the possibility of trans-Pacific voyages to the Americas pre-dating European contact is still debated 5 – 7 . Here, to address these questions, we reconstructed the genomic history of the Rapanui on the basis of 15 ancient Rapanui individuals that we radiocarbon dated (1670–1950  ce ) and whole-genome sequenced (0.4–25.6×). We find that these individuals are Polynesian in origin and most closely related to present-day Rapanui, a finding that will contribute to repatriation efforts. Through effective population size reconstructions and extensive population genetics simulations, we reject a scenario involving a severe population bottleneck during the 1600s, as proposed by the ecocide theory. Furthermore, the ancient and present-day Rapanui carry similar proportions of Native American admixture (about 10%). Using a Bayesian approach integrating genetic and radiocarbon dates, we estimate that this admixture event occurred about 1250–1430  ce . An analysis of 15 ancient genomes from individuals dating to AD 1670–1950 from Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island) addresses questions about the population history of the island.

Background/objectives:In Samoa, where 80% of the adult population is living with obesity, understanding the determinants of adiposity and growth during infancy may inform prevention efforts. We examined the association of a missense variant, rs373863828, in the CREBRF gene with body composition in Samoan infants. Adults with one or more copies of the rs373863828 minor allele (A) have higher odds of obesity, based on body-mass index (BMI), but paradoxically decreased odds of diabetes compared to those without the allele. Our study may offer novel insight into the natural history and pathogenesis of this unexpected relationship.Subjects/methods:In a prospective study, we measured body composition in early infancy, and at 2- and 4-months of age using anthropometry and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). We genotyped subjects at the CREBRF rs373863828 locus and compared infants with (AA/AG) and without (GG) the variant. In longitudinal analyses, we calculated the absolute change in each outcome from the early infant to the 4-month assessment, adjusting for baseline and other covariates.Results:In cross-sectional analyses, there was no significant difference in infant BMI or fat mass by genotype. After adjusting for covariates, infants with the variant had 4.0 ± 1.8 g more bone mass (p = 0.026) and 210.9 ± 79.6 g more lean mass (p = 0.009) at 4-months and accumulated 176.9 ± 73.0 g more lean mass between the early infant and 4-month assessment (p = 0.017).Conclusions:The CREBRF rs373863828 minor allele (A) was not associated with increased BMI or adiposity in Samoan infants, but instead with increased lean and bone mass. Our findings suggest that lean (i.e., muscle) and bone mass accretion should be explored as pathways to explain the “protective” effect of the CREBRF variant against diabetes.

Background Efforts to address gambling harm often rely on narrow definitions of help seeking that focus on professional treatment. This approach overlooks the many other ways people seek support, use tools, or take action to reduce or control their gambling. This study aimed to examine the uptake of a broader range of help seeking and self-management approaches among people who gamble, across priority populations, including Māori, Pacific, Asian and Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI), and among people experiencing different levels of gambling harm. Methods A 58-item checklist on help seeking options contained three domains: People and Places (n = 33 items), Tools and Resources (n = 12 items) and Self-Help Strategies (n = 13 items). It was administered online to 514 adults in New Zealand and Australia, using quota sampling for ethnicity and gambling severity (75% past or current problems, 25% regular gamblers). Respondents indicated how often they had engaged in each help-seeking behaviour over the past 12 months. Results Overall, 97% of participants reported using at least one help-seeking option. People and Places were widely used (80.5%) with the most frequently endorsed items being partner, family member, or friend (62.3%), peers in social or cultural groups (44.9%), general practitioners (44.6%) and mental health counsellors (44.4%). Tools and Resources were used by 87.0% and included time-outs (64.8%), reading online information (63.0%), and spending limits (62.5%). Self-Help Strategies were used by 95.5% including lifestyle change (84.2%), setting time or money limits (83.3%), thinking differently about gambling (80.9%), and self-monitoring thoughts, feelings, or behaviours (77.0%). Priority populations had higher uptake of help-seeking options across each of the three domains than non-priority populations. Help seeking increased across levels of gambling severity. Eighty percent of people with no gambling problems reported using any option, compared with 97.9% at low risk and 100% among those with moderate risk or problem gambling. Conclusions Help seeking extended well beyond specialist gambling services and included family, community and general health settings. This suggests that responses to gambling harm already occur across a wide range of everyday settings and highlights the need to better understand and strengthen these community responses. Future research should examine how different options connect to form pathways of support and how effective these pathways are over time.

Although Neandertal sequences that persist in the genomes of modern humans have been identified in Eurasians, comparable studies in people whose ancestors hybridized with both Neandertals and Denisovans are lacking. We developed an approach to identify DNA inherited from multiple archaic hominin ancestors and applied it to whole-genome sequences from 1523 geographically diverse individuals, including 35 previously unknown Island Melanesian genomes. In aggregate, we recovered 1.34 gigabases and 303 megabases of the Neandertal and Denisovan genome, respectively. We use these maps of archaic sequences to show that Neandertal admixture occurred multiple times in different non-African populations, characterize genomic regions that are significantly depleted of archaic sequences, and identify signatures of adaptive introgression.

Analysis of ancient DNA from four individuals who lived in Vanuatu and Tonga between 2,300 and 3,100 years ago suggests that the Papuan ancestry seen in present-day occupants of this region was introduced at a later date. Waves of migration in the Southwest Pacific Pacific islanders today have been found to have ancestry from a mixture of lineages including Papuan, Australian and East Asian. David Reich and colleagues now report analysis of ancient genomic data from four individuals from Vanuatu and Tonga, South Pacific islands, representing the first ancient genomic data from Oceanian populations. Their analysis finds no evidence of Papuan ancestry in the early Remote Oceanians, suggesting that Papuan ancestry seen in contemporary Pacific islanders may reflect later migration. The appearance of people associated with the Lapita culture in the South Pacific around 3,000 years ago 1 marked the beginning of the last major human dispersal to unpopulated lands. However, the relationship of these pioneers to the long-established Papuan people of the New Guinea region is unclear. Here we present genome-wide ancient DNA data from three individuals from Vanuatu (about 3,100–2,700 years before present) and one from Tonga (about 2,700–2,300 years before present), and analyse them with data from 778 present-day East Asians and Oceanians. Today, indigenous people of the South Pacific harbour a mixture of ancestry from Papuans and a population of East Asian origin that no longer exists in unmixed form, but is a match to the ancient individuals. Most analyses have interpreted the minimum of twenty-five per cent Papuan ancestry in the region today as evidence that the first humans to reach Remote Oceania, including Polynesia, were derived from population mixtures near New Guinea, before their further expansion into Remote Oceania 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 . However, our finding that the ancient individuals had little to no Papuan ancestry implies that later human population movements spread Papuan ancestry through the South Pacific after the first peopling of the islands.

Polynesia was settled in a series of extraordinary voyages across an ocean spanning one third of the Earth 1 , but the sequences of islands settled remain unknown and their timings disputed. Currently, several centuries separate the dates suggested by different archaeological surveys 2 – 4 . Here, using genome-wide data from merely 430 modern individuals from 21 key Pacific island populations and novel ancestry-specific computational analyses, we unravel the detailed genetic history of this vast, dispersed island network. Our reconstruction of the branching Polynesian migration sequence reveals a serial founder expansion, characterized by directional loss of variants, that originated in Samoa and spread first through the Cook Islands (Rarotonga), then to the Society (Tōtaiete mā) Islands (11th century), the western Austral (Tuha’a Pae) Islands and Tuāmotu Archipelago (12th century), and finally to the widely separated, but genetically connected, megalithic statue-building cultures of the Marquesas (Te Henua ‘Enana) Islands in the north, Raivavae in the south, and Easter Island (Rapa Nui), the easternmost of the Polynesian islands, settled in approximately ad 1200 via Mangareva. Analysis of genomic networks from 430 modern individuals across 21 Pacific island populations reveals the human settlement history of Polynesia.

The possibility of voyaging contact between prehistoric Polynesian and Native American populations has long intrigued researchers. Proponents have pointed to the existence of New World crops, such as the sweet potato and bottle gourd, in the Polynesian archaeological record, but nowhere else outside the pre-Columbian Americas 1 – 6 , while critics have argued that these botanical dispersals need not have been human mediated 7 . The Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl controversially suggested that prehistoric South American populations had an important role in the settlement of east Polynesia and particularly of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) 2 . Several limited molecular genetic studies have reached opposing conclusions, and the possibility continues to be as hotly contested today as it was when first suggested 8 – 12 . Here we analyse genome-wide variation in individuals from islands across Polynesia for signs of Native American admixture, analysing 807 individuals from 17 island populations and 15 Pacific coast Native American groups. We find conclusive evidence for prehistoric contact of Polynesian individuals with Native American individuals (around ad 1200) contemporaneous with the settlement of remote Oceania 13 – 15 . Our analyses suggest strongly that a single contact event occurred in eastern Polynesia, before the settlement of Rapa Nui, between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group most closely related to the indigenous inhabitants of present-day Colombia. Genomic analyses of DNA from modern individuals show that, about 800 years ago, pre-European contact occurred between Polynesian individuals and Native American individuals from near present-day Colombia, while remote Pacific islands were still being settled.

Summary While US Asian and Pacific Islander adults have lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels than White adults, ethnic subgroup data remain limited. In a large California population, the adjusted prevalence of 25(OH)D < 20 ng/mL (50 nmol/L) was 1.5- to 2.7-fold higher for Asian/Pacific Islander compared to White adults, with substantial variation by ethnicity. Purpose US Asian and Pacific Islander (PI) adults generally have lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels than non-Hispanic White (NHW) adults, but subgroup data remain limited. We compared sex- and ethnicity-specific prevalence of low 25(OH)D among older Asian/PI and NHW adults. Methods Data from 102,556 Asian/PI and 381,724 NHW adults aged 50–89 years with measured 25(OH)D in 2012–2019 and body mass index (BMI, within ± 1 year) were examined in a California healthcare system. Low 25(OH)D < 20 ng/mL (50 nmol/L) was examined by race and ethnicity. Covariates included age, smoking, BMI, and season of measurement. Modified Poisson regression was used to estimate prevalence ratios (aPR), adjusting for covariates. Results Among 31,287 Asian/PI men and 71,269 Asian/PI women, the prevalence of low 25(OH)D was 22.6% and 14.7%, respectively, significantly higher than observed for 122,162 NHW men (12.3%) and 259,562 NHW women (9.9%). Within Asian/PI subgroups, low 25(OH)D prevalence ranged from 17 to 18% (Korean, Japanese, Filipino), 22 to 24% (Chinese, Vietnamese), 28% (South Asian), and 35% (Native Hawaiian/PI) among men and 11 to 14% (Japanese, Filipina, Chinese, Korean), 17 to 18% (South Asian, Vietnamese), and 26% (Native Hawaiian/PI) among women. The corresponding aPRs (NHW reference) for men and women were as follows: Native Hawaiian/PI, 2.70 and 2.34; South Asian, 2.56 and 2.07; Vietnamese, 2.17 and 2.31; Chinese, 2.04 and 1.89; Korean, 1.60 and 1.85; Filipino, 1.58 and 1.52; and Japanese, 1.58 and 1.49 ( p  < 0.001). Conclusion In a large US healthcare population of older Asian/PI adults, low 25(OH)D prevalence was 1.5- to 2.7-fold higher for Asian/PI compared to NHW adults, with substantial variation by sex and ethnicity.