Comparing diabetes prevalence between African Americans and Whites of similar socioeconomic status.
OBJECTIVE
We investigated whether racial disparities in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes exist beyond what may be attributable to differences in socioeconomic status (SES) and other modifiable risk factors.


METHODS
We analyzed data from 34331 African American and 9491 White adults aged 40 to 79 years recruited into the ongoing Southern Community Cohort Study. Participants were enrolled at community health centers and had similar socioeconomic circumstances and risk factor profiles. We used logistic regression to estimate the association between race and prevalence of self-reported diabetes after taking into account age, SES, health insurance coverage, body mass index, physical activity, and hypertension.


RESULTS
Multivariate analyses accounting for several diabetes risk factors did not provide strong support for higher diabetes prevalence rates among African Americans than among Whites (men: odds ratio [OR]=1.07; 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.95, 1.20); women: OR=1.13, 95% CI=1.04, 1.22).


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that major differences in diabetes prevalence between African Americans and Whites may simply reflect differences in established risk factors for the disease, such as SES, that typically vary according to race.
Signorello
Lisa B
LB
International Epidemiology Institute, Rockville, MD 20850, USA. lisa. signorello@intepi.org
Schlundt
David G
DG
Cohen
Sarah S
SS
Steinwandel
Mark D
MD
Buchowski
Maciej S
MS
McLaughlin
Joseph K
JK
Hargreaves
Margaret K
MK
Blot
William J
WJ
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012923:Social Class; D015144:Southeastern United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data