title: Body fat is differentially related to body mass index in U.S.-born African-American and East African immigrant girls.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine ethnic differences in adiposity at a given body mass index (BMI) in a sample of U.S.-born African-American and East African immigrant adolescent girls.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a sample of black adolescent girls (n = 79; ages 14-20) we compared measures of adiposity across the range of BMI-for-age among 55 U.S.-born African-American (mean BMI: 30.4; age: 15.4) and 24 East African immigrant girls (mean BMI: 21.8; age: 16.7). Fat and fat-free mass were assessed with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). We used spline regression to examine the distributions of fat mass index and percent body fat across the range of BMI-for-age z-scores.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with African-American girls, East African girls were smaller on all body measures, but appeared to have higher fat mass index and percent body fat at the same BMI-for-age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings indicate that at a given BMI East African immigrants may have greater adiposity than African-American girls. If corroborated in larger samples, our data suggest that the cardiometabolic risks attendant to elevated adiposity may affect East African girls at a lower BMI than in African-American girls.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55454, USA. meyer088@umn.edu
authors.forename: Katie A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: Ellen W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Demerath
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Friend
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Hannan
authors.forename: Dianne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Neumark-Sztainer
mesh_terms: D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon; D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000502:physiology*; D050154:Adiposity / Q000208:ethnology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000351:Africa, Eastern / Q000208:ethnology; D001823:Body Composition; D015992:Body Mass Index; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008910:Minnesota / Q000453:epidemiology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D055815:Young Adult