Obesity in the transition to adulthood: predictions across race/ethnicity, immigrant generation, and sex.
OBJECTIVE
To trace how racial/ethnic and immigrant disparities in body mass index (BMI) change over time as adolescents (age, 11-19 years) transition to young adulthood (age, 20-28 years).


METHODS
We used growth curve modeling to estimate the pattern of change in BMI from adolescence through the transition to adulthood.


METHODS
All participants in the study were residents of the United States enrolled in junior high school or high school during the 1994-1995 school year.


METHODS
More than 20 000 adolescents from nationally representative data interviewed at wave I (1994-1995) and followed up in wave II (1996) and III (2001-2002) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health when the sample was in early adulthood.


METHODS
Race/ethnicity, immigrant generation, and sex.


METHODS
Body mass index.


RESULTS
Findings indicate significant differences in both the level and change in BMI across age by sex, race/ethnicity, and immigrant generation. Females, second- and third-generation immigrants, and Hispanic and black individuals experience more rapidly increasing BMIs from adolescence into young adulthood. Increases in BMI are relatively lower for males, first-generation immigrants, and white and Asian individuals.


CONCLUSIONS
Disparities in BMI and prevalence of overweight and obesity widen with age as adolescents leave home and begin independent lives as young adults in their 20s.
Harris
Kathleen Mullan
KM
Department of Sociology, Carolina Population Center, Chapel Hill, NC 27516, USA.
Perreira
Krista M
KM
Lee
Dohoon
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult