scholarly journals Dramatic Increases in Obesity and Overweight Prevalence among Asian Subgroups in the United States, 1992–2011

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gopal K. Singh ◽  
Sue C. Lin

We examined trends in adult obesity and overweight prevalence among major Asian/Pacific Islander (API) subgroups and the non-Hispanic whites from 1992 to 2011. Using 1992–2011 National Health Interview Surveys, obesity, overweight, and BMI differentials were analyzed by logistic, linear, and log-linear regression. Between 1992 and 2011, obesity prevalence doubled for the Chinese, the Asian Indians, the Japanese, and the Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders; and tripled for the Filipinos. Obesity prevalence among API adults tripled from 3.7% in 1992 to 13.3% in 2010, and overweight prevalence doubled from 23.2% to 43.1%. Immigrants in each API subgroup had lower prevalence than their US-born counterparts, with immigrants’ obesity and overweight risks increasing with increasing duration of residence. During 2006–2011, obesity prevalence ranged from 3.3% for Chinese immigrants to 22.3% for the US-born Filipinos and 41.1% for the Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders. The Asian Indians, the Filipinos, and the Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders had, respectively, 3.1, 3.8, and 10.9 times higher odds of obesity than those of the Chinese adults. Compared with Chinese immigrants, the adjusted odds of obesity were 3.5–4.6 times higher for the US-born Chinese and the foreign-born Filipinos, 9 times higher for the US-born Filipinos and whites, 3.8–5.5 times higher for the US-born and foreign-born Asian Indians, and 21.9 times higher for the Native Hawaiians. Substantial ethnic heterogeneity and rising prevalence underscore the need for increased monitoring of obesity and obesity-related risk factors among API subgroups.

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Brettell

Soon after 9/11 a research project to study new immigration into the Dallas Fort Worth metropolitan area got under way. In the questionnaire that was administered to 600 immigrants across five different immigrant populations (Asian Indians, Vietnamese, Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Nigerians) between 2003 and 2005 we decided to include a question about the impact of 9/11 on their lives. We asked: “How has the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 affected your position as an immigrant in the United States?” This article analyzes the responses to this question, looking at similarities and differences across different immigrant populations. It also addresses the broader issue of how 9/11 has affected both immigration policy and attitudes toward the foreign-born in the United States. 


2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 58-69
Author(s):  
Marlene Kim

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in the United States face problems of discrimination, the glass ceiling, and very high long-term unemployment rates. As a diverse population, although some Asian Americans are more successful than average, others, like those from Southeast Asia and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPIs), work in low-paying jobs and suffer from high poverty rates, high unemployment rates, and low earnings. Collecting more detailed and additional data from employers, oversampling AAPIs in current data sets, making administrative data available to researchers, providing more resources for research on AAPIs, and enforcing nondiscrimination laws and affirmative action mandates would assist this population.


Circulation ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 137 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brittany Shelton ◽  
Deanna McWilliams ◽  
Rhiannon D Reed ◽  
Margaux Mustian ◽  
Paul MacLennan ◽  
...  

Background: Obesity has become a national epidemic, and is associated with increased risk for comorbid diseases including end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Among ESRD patients, obesity may improve dialysis-survival but decreases likelihood of transplantation, and as such, obesity prevalence may directly impact growth of the incident dialysis population. Methods: Incident adult ESRD patients with complete body mass index (BMI, kg/m 2 ) data were identified from the United States Renal Data System from 01/01/1995-12/31/2010 (n=1,822,598). Data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (n=4,303,471) represented the US population when weighted. Trends in BMI and obesity classes I (BMI of 30-34.9), II (BMI of 35-39.9), and III (BMI ≥40) were examined by year of dialysis initiation. Trends in median BMI slope were compared between the ESRD and US populations using linear regression. Results: Median BMI of ESRD patients in 1995 was 24.2 as compared to 28.0 in 2010, a 15.7% increase, while the US population’s median BMI increased from 24.2 in 1995 to 25.6 in 2010, a 5.8% increase. Comparable trends were noted with respect to prevalence of obesity classes I, II, and III (Table). BMI increase among the ESRD population was significantly more rapid than among the US population (β: 0.15, 95% CI: 0.14-0.17, p<0.001) (Figure). Conclusion: The median BMI of ESRD patients and prevalence of obesity among ESRD patients is increasing more rapidly than the US population. Given the increased dialysis-survival and decreased likelihood of transplantation associated with obesity, healthcare costs will likely increase, and thus, future research should be directed at examining medical expenditures.


Stroke ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Fang ◽  
Keming Yuan ◽  
Carma Ayala ◽  
Renee Gindi ◽  
Brian Ward

Introduction: The proportion of US adults who are foreign-born has almost tripled since 1970. While foreign-born adults have lower cardiovascular disease mortality and risk factors (e.g., hypertension) than US-born adults, less is known about the morbidity of stroke in this population. Objective: To compare the prevalence of stroke among US adults by birthplace. Methods: We used data on 223,842 non-institutionalized adults from the 2006-2013 National Health Interview Survey. Birthplace was categorized as US- and foreign-born, and foreign-born was then grouped into 7 regions. Data on years of living in the US was included. Self-reported stroke was defined as ever being told by doctor or other health professional that s/he had a stroke. Select descriptive (age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, health insurance, language of interview, use of interpreter) and health characteristics (hypertension, diabetes, body mass index, alcohol use, smoking status) were used in analysis. Age-standardized prevalence of stroke was compared between US- and foreign-born and then by birthplace regions among foreign-born. Adjusted odd ratios (AORs) were used to assess stroke risk between US- and foreign-born after adjusting for demographic and health characteristics. Results: Sixteen percent of US adults were classified as foreign-born. Age-standardized prevalence of stroke was higher among US- than foreign-born adults overall (2.7% vs 2.0%, p<0.0001) and by race/ethnicity: non-Hispanic blacks (4.1% (US) vs 2.2% (foreign-born), p<0.0001), Hispanics (2.8% vs 2.2%, p=0.03) and non-Hispanic whites (2.5% vs 1.7%, p<0.0001). Compared to US-born men, AORs of stroke for foreign-born men by region of birth, ranged from 0.24 (95% confidence interval 0.08-0.69) for Africa to 1.05 (0.74-1.51) for Europe. Among foreign-born women, AORs ranged from 0.07 (0.01-0.43) for the Middle East to 1.13 (0.54-2.34) for Africa, after adjustment for selected characteristics. Among foreign-born adults, there was no association between age-standardized stroke prevalence and the number of years living in the US. Conclusion: Overall, foreign-born US adults had a lower prevalence of stroke than US-born adults. However, considerable heterogeneity of stroke risk was noted by region of birth.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ranjita Misra ◽  
Padmini Balagopal ◽  
Sudha Raj ◽  
Thakor G. Patel

Research studies have shown that plant-based diets confer cardiovascular and metabolic health benefits. Asian Indians (AIs) in the US (who have often followed plant-based diets) have elevated risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and obesity suggesting ethnic vulnerability that imply genetic and/or lifestyle causative links. This study explored the association between this ethnic group and diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome after controlling for demographics, acculturation, family history of diabetes, and lifestyle and clinical risk factors. The sample comprised of 1038 randomly selected adult AIs in seven US sites. Prevalence and metabolic syndrome was estimated, and obesity was calculated using the WHO Asian criteria. Multivariate analysis included multinomial logistic regression. The mean age and length of residency in the US were 47 and 18.5 years, respectively. The majority of respondents were vegetarians (62%) and educated. A vegetarian lifestyle was associated with females, food label users, respondents with poor/fair current health status, less acculturated, and those who reported their diet had not changed after coming to the US. Vegetarian status was a protective factor and lowered the risk for diabetes but not for metabolic syndrome and obesity in the regression model. Results provide a firm basis for educational programs.


Author(s):  
Peace C. Okpala ◽  
Carrie Rosario ◽  
Melissa J. Dupont-Reyes ◽  
Michelle Y. Martin Romero ◽  
Md Towfiqul Alam ◽  
...  

Introduction: Young adults are the second largest segment of the immigrant population in the United States (US). Given recent trends in later age of initiation of tobacco use, we examined variation in use of tobacco products by nativity status for this population group. Methods: Our study included young adults 18-30 years of age sampled in the National Health Interview Survey (2015-2019), a nationally representative sample of the US population. We calculated prevalence of use of any and 2 or more tobacco products (cigarettes, cigars, pipes, e-cigarettes, and smokeless tobacco) for foreign-born (n=3,096) and US-born (n=6,811) young adults. Logistic regression models adjusted for age, sex, race-ethnicity, education, and poverty, while accounting for the complex survey design. Results: Foreign-born young adults were significantly less likely to use any tobacco product (Cigarette = 7.3% vs 10.7%; Cigar= 1.8% vs 4.8%; E-cigarette= 2.3% vs 4.5%, respectively; p&lt;0.01) or poly tobacco use (1.9% vs. 4.2%; p&lt;0.01) than US-born young adults. Adjusted regression models showed lower odds of poly tobacco use among the foreign-born than their US-born counterparts (Odds Ratio = 0.41, (95% Confidence Interval: 0.26-0.63)). Conclusion: Findings highlight the importance of targeted interventions by nativity status and further tobacco prevention efforts needed for the US-born.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olubusola Oladeji ◽  
Chi Zhang ◽  
Tiam Moradi ◽  
Dharmesh Tarapore ◽  
Andrew C Stokes ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The prevalence of chronic conditions such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes is increasing in African countries. Many chronic diseases have been linked to risk factors such as poor diet and physical inactivity. Data for these behavioral risk factors are usually obtained from surveys, which can be delayed by years. Behavioral data from digital sources, including social media and search engines, could be used for timely monitoring of behavioral risk factors. OBJECTIVE The objective of our study was to propose the use of digital data from internet sources for monitoring changes in behavioral risk factors in Africa. METHODS We obtained the adjusted volume of search queries submitted to Google for 108 terms related to diet, exercise, and disease from 2010 to 2016. We also obtained the obesity and overweight prevalence for 52 African countries from the World Health Organization (WHO) for the same period. Machine learning algorithms (ie, random forest, support vector machine, Bayes generalized linear model, gradient boosting, and an ensemble of the individual methods) were used to identify search terms and patterns that correlate with changes in obesity and overweight prevalence across Africa. Out-of-sample predictions were used to assess and validate the model performance. RESULTS The study included 52 African countries. In 2016, the WHO reported an overweight prevalence ranging from 20.9% (95% credible interval [CI] 17.1%-25.0%) to 66.8% (95% CI 62.4%-71.0%) and an obesity prevalence ranging from 4.5% (95% CI 2.9%-6.5%) to 32.5% (95% CI 27.2%-38.1%) in Africa. The highest obesity and overweight prevalence were noted in the northern and southern regions. Google searches for diet-, exercise-, and obesity-related terms explained 97.3% (root-mean-square error [RMSE] 1.15) of the variation in obesity prevalence across all 52 countries. Similarly, the search data explained 96.6% (RMSE 2.26) of the variation in the overweight prevalence. The search terms yoga, exercise, and gym were most correlated with changes in obesity and overweight prevalence in countries with the highest prevalence. CONCLUSIONS Information-seeking patterns for diet- and exercise-related terms could indicate changes in attitudes toward and engagement in risk factors or healthy behaviors. These trends could capture population changes in risk factor prevalence, inform digital and physical interventions, and supplement official data from surveys.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Alejandro Montiel Ishino ◽  
Philip McNab ◽  
Kevin Villalobos ◽  
Jeffrey H. Cohen ◽  
Anna M. Nápoles ◽  
...  

Background: Acculturation profiles and their impact on telomere length among foreign-born Hispanics/Latinos living in the United States (US) are relatively unknown. The limited research available has linked acculturation with shortened telomere length.Objectives: To identify acculturation profiles among a US representative sample of Hispanics/Latinos and to then examine telomere length differences between profiles.Methods: We conducted a latent class analysis among a non-institutionalized US-representative sample of Hispanics/Latinos using the 1999–2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (N = 2,292). The latent variable of acculturation was assessed by length of time in the US and language used as a child, read and spoken, usually spoken at home, used to think, and used with friends (i.e., Spanish and/or English). Telomere length assessed from leukocytes was used as the distal continuous outcome.Results: We identified five profiles: (1) low acculturated [33.2% of sample]; (2) partially integrated [18.6% of sample]; (3) integrated [19.4% of sample]; (4) partially assimilated [15.1% of sample]; and (5) assimilated [13.7% of sample]. Acculturation profiles revealed nuanced differences in conditional probabilities with language use despite the length of time spent in the US. While telomere length did vary, there were no significant differences between profiles.Conclusion: Profiles identified revealed that possible life-course and generational effects may be at play in the partially assimilated and assimilated profiles. Our findings expand public health research using complex survey data to identify and assess the dynamic relationship of acculturation profiles and health biomarkers, while being among the first to examine this context using a person-centered approach.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (6_suppl) ◽  
pp. 577-577
Author(s):  
Firas Baidoun ◽  
Inas A. Ruhban ◽  
Anas M. Saad ◽  
Mohamed M. Gad ◽  
Khalid Jazieh ◽  
...  

577 Background: Bladder cancer is the most common type of genitourinary malignancy and is the fourth most common cancer in men in the US. Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder accounts for most bladder cancer cases. Previous studies have observed racial disparities in the prognosis between white and black populations with very little mentioned about other ethnicities and race groups that are part of the United States population. We hereby, present a detailed and comprehensive analysis of racial disparities in TCC survival in the US. Methods: Using the data from surveillance Epidemiology and End results (SEER) database, we identified patients with TCC between 1992 and 2015. We used multivariable covariate-adjusted Cox models to analyze the overall and TCC-specific survival of patients according to their race. Results: We evaluated 176,388 patients with TCC and after we adjusted for age, sex, race, stage, grade, and undergoing cancer-targeted surgery, we found that Asians/Pacific Islanders and Hispanics had a better overall survival when compared to whites (HR= 0.792, 95% CI [0.761-0.824], P<.001 and HR = 0.941, 95% CI [0.909-0.974], P = .001, respectively). Asians/Pacific Islanders also showed better TCC specific survival (HR = 0.843, 95% CI [0.759-0.894], P<.001). Blacks had worse overall survival and TCC-specific survival (HR =1.221, 95% CI [1.181-1.262], P <.001 and HR =1.325, 95% CI [1.268- 1.384], P <.001, respectively). When stage IV TCC was analyzed separately, only Hispanics showed better overall and TCC specific survival when compared to whites (HR = 0.896, 95% CI [0.806-0.997], P = 0.044 and HR = 0.891, 95% CI [0.797-0.996], P = 0.42). Conclusions: Asians/Pacific Islanders have better overall and TCC-specific outcome while blacks have the worst outcome compared to whites. Hispanics have better overall and cancer specific survival in stage IV TCC. These disparities likely related to different and complex factors from lifestyle and chemical exposure to genetic factors. Further studies can help us more in understanding and approaching this malignancy in different race groups.


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