Our methodologies aim to minimize ancestry-related biases in polygenic risk scores, so that the scores are relevant to all people, whatever their genetic ancestry. In some cases, this means that the increase or decrease in risk associated with a genetic variant differs according to what we determine to be your majority genetic ancestry.
We learn your majority genetic ancestry by comparing your genetic data with a reference data set that includes people of European, South Asian, East Asian, African and Native American genetic ancestries and identifying the group that you are most genetically similar to.
This information on genetic ancestry is used separately to the information you provided on your race (ethnicity). Both are important for calculating your risk.