Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Sep;32(9):1644-6.
doi: 10.2337/dc09-0573. Epub 2009 Jun 9.

Asian Americans: diabetes prevalence across U.S. and World Health Organization weight classifications

Reena Oza-Frank  1 , Mohammed K Ali, Viola Vaccarino, K M Venkat Narayan
Affiliations

Asian Americans: diabetes prevalence across U.S. and World Health Organization weight classifications

Reena Oza-Frank et al. Diabetes Care. 2009 Sep.

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.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. U.S. Census Bureau. Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, May 2008 [article online]. Available from: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/cb08ff-05.pdf Accessed 24 March 2009
    1. Bhansali A, Nagaprasad G, Agarwal A, Dutta P, Bhadada S. Does body mass index predict overweight in native Asian Indians? A study from a North Indian population. Ann Nutr Metab 2006; 50: 66– 73 - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization: Appropriate body-mass index for Asian populations and its implications for policy and intervention strategies. Lancet 2004; 363: 157– 163 - PubMed
    1. National Center for Health Statistics: Variance estimation and other analytic issues in the 1997–2005 NHIS (adapted from appendices III and VII of the 2005 NHIS Survey Description Document, and appendix III of the 2006 NHIS Survey Description Document) [article online]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/9705var.pdf Accessed 24 March 2009
    1. Nakagami T, Qiao Q, Carstensen B, Nhr-Hansen C, Hu G, Tuomilehto J, Balkau B, Borch-Johnsen K. Age, body mass index and type 2 diabetes-associations modified by ethnicity. Diabetologia 2003; 46: 1063– 1070 - PubMed

Publication types