Asian Americans: Diabetes Prevalence Across U.S. and World Health Organization Weight Classifications
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To compare diabetes prevalence among Asian Americans by World Health Organization and U.S. BMI classifications.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Data on Asian American adults (n = 7,414) from the National Health Interview Survey for 1997–2005 were analyzed. Diabetes prevalence was estimated across weight and ethnic group strata.
RESULTS Regardless of BMI classification, Asian Indians and Filipinos had the highest prevalence of overweight (34–47 and 35–47%, respectively, compared with 20–38% in Chinese; P < 0.05). Asian Indians also had the highest ethnic-specific diabetes prevalence (ranging from 6–7% among the normal weight to 19–33% among the obese) compared with non-Hispanic whites: odds ratio (95% CI) for Asian Indians 2.0 (1.5–2.6), adjusted for age and sex, and 3.1 (2.4–4.0) with additional adjustment for BMI.
CONCLUSIONS Asian Indian ethnicity, but not other Asian ethnicities, was strongly associated with diabetes. Weight classification as a marker of diabetes risk may need to accommodate differences across Asian subgroups.
Footnotes
-
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
- Received March 25, 2009.
- Accepted May 22, 2009.
- © 2009 by the American Diabetes Association.
In this Issue
