The bottom panel of Table 3 addresses research utility. It presents predictiveness metrics for two comparison measures of obesity risk: the simple genetic risk assessment (weighted combinations of rs9939609 in FTO and rs12970134 downstream of MC4R) and the socioeconomic index (a 5-category measure of educational attainment). The FTO and MC4R loci and socioeconomic status are robust correlates of BMI and obesity in adult samples 43,44. Comparison of the 32-locus GRS to a two-locus risk assessment can illustrate whether the GRS offers value added over a simpler genetic risk assessment. Comparison of the GRS to socioeconomic status can illustrate how the predictiveness of the GRS compares to the predictiveness of a social determinant of obesity that is not easily changed but that is understood to be important in etiological research 45. Among whites, the genetic risk scores performed better than the comparison measures of obesity risk on all 3 metrics (p<0.01 for all comparisons). Among African Americans, the GRSs performed no differently from the simple genetic risk assessment (p>0.10) and performed less well as compared to the socioeconomic index (p=0.021). When
