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Observational Study
. 2016 Aug;51(2):e45-e55.
doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2016.02.010. Epub 2016 Apr 5.

Ethnic Disparities in Trends in High BMI Among California Adolescents, 2003-2012

Jennifer Falbe  1 , Carolyn Cotterman  2 , Jennifer Linchey  3 , Kristine A Madsen  3
Affiliations
Observational Study

Ethnic Disparities in Trends in High BMI Among California Adolescents, 2003-2012

Jennifer Falbe et al. Am J Prev Med. 2016 Aug.

Abstract

Introduction: Because California is home to one in eight U.S. children and accounts for the highest Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program spending, childhood obesity trends in California have important implications for the entire nation. California's racial/ethnic diversity and large school-based data set provide a unique opportunity to examine trends by race/ethnicity, including understudied Asian and American Indian youth, which has not been possible using national data sets. This study examined racial/ethnic disparities in prevalence of high BMI from 2003 to 2012.

Methods: This observational study included 11,624,865 BMI records from repeated cross-sections of fifth-, seventh-, and ninth-graders who underwent California's school-based fitness testing. Analyses conducted in 2015 used logistic regression to identify trends in prevalence of high BMI (BMI ≥85th, 95th, and 97th percentiles) and differences in trends by race/ethnicity from 2003 to 2012.

Results: African American and Hispanic girls and American Indian boys increased in prevalence of high BMI, whereas non-Hispanic white and Asian youth and Hispanic boys decreased in prevalence of high BMI (p-values<0.05) from 2003 to 2012. Over this period, African American, Hispanic, and American Indian youth had higher slopes for trends in high BMI than non-Hispanic white youth (p-values<0.05).

Conclusions: Based on California's statewide data, there is evidence that racial/ethnic disparities in prevalence of high BMI have widened over time. Minority youth have either decreased more slowly or increased in prevalence compared with non-Hispanic white youth. There continues to be an urgent need for policies and interventions that effectively reduce racial/ethnic obesity prevalence disparities.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. BMI≥95th percentile by race/ethnicity from 2003–2012
Error bars indicate 95% CIs and are visualized only for American Indian youth; all other ethnicities had negligible SE. Includes 11,624,865 student records from fifth, seventh, and ninth grades.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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