title: Cumulative social risk and racial/ethnic disparities in obesity during the transition to adulthood.
abstract: Racial/ethnic disparities in adolescent obesity in the U.S. are stark, and the causes of these disparities are largely unknown. We used a cumulative risk index (CRI) to examine the role of social risk in racial/ethnic disparities in obesity. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and multinomial logistic regression, we examined the role of this CRI in disparities in obesity in the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, compared with White females, Black and Hispanic females had roughly a 50% increase in the odds of newly-developed obesity in adulthood and a 90% increase in the odds of persistent obesity in adolescence and adulthood. After adding our CRI, the Black-White disparities were attenuated to statistical non-significance. Hispanic-White disparities did not change. There were no disparities in obesity for males. Our results suggest that social risk factors accumulate to explain Black-White disparities in obesity for females.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-3340, USA. hedylee@u.washington.edu
authors.forename: Hedwig
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Margaret T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Hicken
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000208:ethnology*; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D064890:Social Determinants of Health / Q000208:ethnology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data