Prevalence of obesity in American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Obesity is an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and non-insulin-dependent diabetes, which are chronic diseases that afflict American Indians and Alaska Natives today. Because American Indians are not represented in most national health and nutrition surveys, there is a paucity of data on actual prevalence of obesity in American Indians. We estimated prevalence of overweight and obesity for American Indian adults, school-age children, and preschool children from existing data. The prevalence of obesity in adults was estimated from self-reported weights and heights obtained from a special survey of American Indians performed as part of the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey. Prevalence of obesity in American Indians was 13.7% for men and 16.5% for women, which was higher than the US rates of 9.1% and 8.2%, respectively. Obesity rates in American Indian adolescents and preschool children were higher than the respective rates for US all-races combined.
Broussard
B A
BA
Indian Health Service Diabetes Program, US Public Health Service, Albuquerque, NM.
Johnson
A
A
Himes
J H
JH
Story
M
M
Fichtner
R
R
Hauck
F
F
Bachman-Carter
K
K
Hayes
J
J
Frohlich
K
K
Gray
N
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000413:Alaska / Q000453:epidemiology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012885:Skinfold Thickness; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology