The female-male disparity in obesity prevalence among black American young adults: contributions of sociodemographic characteristics of the childhood family.
BACKGROUND
In the United States, black women are at much greater risk of obesity than are black men. Little is known about the factors underlying this disparity.


OBJECTIVE
We explored whether childhood sociodemographic factors (parental education, single-mother household, number of siblings, number of minors in household, birth order, and female caregiver's age) were associated with the gender disparity in obesity prevalence in young black adults in the United States.


METHODS
An analytic data set (n = 7747) was constructed from the nationally representative National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Childhood sociodemographic factors were assessed in 1994-1995 in nonimmigrant black and white youths aged 11-19 y. Obesity was assessed in 2001-2002. For each childhood sociodemographic factor, we evaluated whether the prevalence difference (female obesity minus male obesity) was modified by the factor. We described the contribution of each variable category to the overall prevalence difference.


RESULTS
In unadjusted and multivariable-adjusted models, parental education consistently modified gender disparity in blacks (P = 0.01). The gender gap was largest with low parental education (16.7% of men compared with 45.4% of women were obese) and smallest with high parental education (28.5% of men compared with 31.4% of women were obese). In whites, there was little overall gender difference in obesity prevalence.


CONCLUSIONS
To our knowledge, this was the first study to document that the gender disparity in obesity prevalence in young black adults is concentrated in families with low parental education. In these low-socioeconomic-status families, obesity development is either under the control of distinct mechanisms in each gender, or men and women from these households adopt different obesity-related behaviors.
Robinson
Whitney R
WR
Department of Epidemiology and the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. wrrobins@umich.edu
Gordon-Larsen
Penny
P
Kaufman
Jay S
JS
Suchindran
Chirayath M
CM
Stevens
June
J
D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001722:Birth Order; D002648:Child; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D004522:Educational Status; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D015995:Prevalence; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult