Asian Americans: diabetes prevalence across U.S. and World Health Organization weight classifications.
OBJECTIVE
To compare diabetes prevalence among Asian Americans by World Health Organization and U.S. BMI classifications.


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.
Oza-Frank
Reena
R
Nutrition and Health Sciences Program, Graduate Division of Biomedical and Biological Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. roza@emory.edu
Ali
Mohammed K
MK
Vaccarino
Viola
V
Narayan
K M Venkat
KM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001213:Asian; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult