Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of the National Medical Association logoLink to Journal of the National Medical Association
. 2002 Jul;94(7):566–576.

Trend in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among urban African American hospital employees and public housing residents.

Vickie L Shavers 1, Sharada Shankar 1
PMCID: PMC2594290  PMID: 12126282

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: To help understand the impact of socioeconomic status, we examined the current prevalence and age-specific trend in overweight and obesity among two socioeconomically diverse groups of African Americans in the Washington, DC, area. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data on height and weight were collected between March 1995 and December 1996 as a part of nutrition survey to develop a food frequency questionnaire. Gender-stratified multiple logistic regression analyses were used to examine factors related to the current prevalence of overweight and obesity. RESULTS: Three hundred nine African American public housing residents and 293 African American hospital employees participated in this survey. Overall, hospital workers and public housing residents differed significantly in the distribution of BMI (p = 0.003). Among men, the prevalence of overweight and obesity were 34.9% and 29.4% for hospital workers and 27.0% and 18.2% for public housing residents, respectively. For females these rates were 31.3% and 46.3% for hospital employees and 26.1% and 42.9% for public housing residents, respectively. CONCLUSION: Overweight and obesity were highly prevalent among all age and socioeconomic groups. Future research should focus on a more in-depth study of the relationship between socioeconomic status and the correlates of obesity among African-Americans, particularly women.

Full text

PDF
569

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Albanes D., Jones D. Y., Micozzi M. S., Mattson M. E. Associations between smoking and body weight in the US population: analysis of NHANES II. Am J Public Health. 1987 Apr;77(4):439–444. doi: 10.2105/ajph.77.4.439. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Brancati F. L., Wang N. Y., Mead L. A., Liang K. Y., Klag M. J. Body weight patterns from 20 to 49 years of age and subsequent risk for diabetes mellitus: the Johns Hopkins Precursors Study. Arch Intern Med. 1999 May 10;159(9):957–963. doi: 10.1001/archinte.159.9.957. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Burke G. L., Savage P. J., Manolio T. A., Sprafka J. M., Wagenknecht L. E., Sidney S., Perkins L. L., Liu K., Jacobs D. R., Jr Correlates of obesity in young black and white women: the CARDIA Study. Am J Public Health. 1992 Dec;82(12):1621–1625. doi: 10.2105/ajph.82.12.1621. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Calle E. E., Thun M. J., Petrelli J. M., Rodriguez C., Heath C. W., Jr Body-mass index and mortality in a prospective cohort of U.S. adults. N Engl J Med. 1999 Oct 7;341(15):1097–1105. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199910073411501. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Crespo C. J., Ainsworth B. E., Keteyian S. J., Heath G. W., Smit E. Prevalence of physical inactivity and its relation to social class in U.S. adults: results from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1999 Dec;31(12):1821–1827. doi: 10.1097/00005768-199912000-00019. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Croft J. B., Strogatz D. S., James S. A., Keenan N. L., Ammerman A. S., Malarcher A. M., Haines P. S. Socioeconomic and behavioral correlates of body mass index in black adults: the Pitt County Study. Am J Public Health. 1992 Jun;82(6):821–826. doi: 10.2105/ajph.82.6.821. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Flegal K. M., Carroll M. D., Kuczmarski R. J., Johnson C. L. Overweight and obesity in the United States: prevalence and trends, 1960-1994. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 1998 Jan;22(1):39–47. doi: 10.1038/sj.ijo.0800541. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Fontaine K. R., Cheskin L. J., Barofsky I. Health-related quality of life in obese persons seeking treatment. J Fam Pract. 1996 Sep;43(3):265–270. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Foster G. D., Wadden T. A., Vogt R. A. Resting energy expenditure in obese African American and Caucasian women. Obes Res. 1997 Jan;5(1):1–8. doi: 10.1002/j.1550-8528.1997.tb00276.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Gillum R. F. Overweight and obesity in black women: a review of published data from the National Center for Health Statistics. J Natl Med Assoc. 1987 Aug;79(8):865–871. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Kahn H. S., Williamson D. F., Stevens J. A. Race and weight change in US women: the roles of socioeconomic and marital status. Am J Public Health. 1991 Mar;81(3):319–323. doi: 10.2105/ajph.81.3.319. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Klipstein-Grobusch K., Kroke A., Boeing H. Reproducibility of self-reported past body weight. Eur J Clin Nutr. 1998 Jul;52(7):525–528. doi: 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600601. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Kuczmarski R. J., Carroll M. D., Flegal K. M., Troiano R. P. Varying body mass index cutoff points to describe overweight prevalence among U.S. adults: NHANES III (1988 to 1994). Obes Res. 1997 Nov;5(6):542–548. doi: 10.1002/j.1550-8528.1997.tb00575.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Lantz P. M., House J. S., Lepkowski J. M., Williams D. R., Mero R. P., Chen J. Socioeconomic factors, health behaviors, and mortality: results from a nationally representative prospective study of US adults. JAMA. 1998 Jun 3;279(21):1703–1708. doi: 10.1001/jama.279.21.1703. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Lerman-Garber I., Villa A. R., Martinez C. L., Turrubiatez L. C., Aguilar Salinas C. A., Lucy V., Wong B., López Alvarenga J. C., Gómez Pérez F., Gutierrez Robledo L. M. The prevalence of obesity and its determinants in urban and rural aging Mexican populations. Obes Res. 1999 Jul;7(4):402–406. doi: 10.1002/j.1550-8528.1999.tb00424.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Mamelle N., Bertucat I., Bossard N., Saury A., Monier M. T., Tourniaire J. Facteurs de risque de surcharge pondérale: enquête auprès du personnel féminin hospitalier. Rev Epidemiol Sante Publique. 1990;38(2):117–124. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Martikainen P. T., Marmot M. G. Socioeconomic differences in weight gain and determinants and consequences of coronary risk factors. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 Apr;69(4):719–726. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/69.4.719. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Norgan N. G., Cameron N. The accuracy of body weight and height recall in middle-aged men. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2000 Dec;24(12):1695–1698. doi: 10.1038/sj.ijo.0801463. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Perry G. S., Byers T. E., Mokdad A. H., Serdula M. K., Williamson D. F. The validity of self-reports of past body weights by U.S. adults. Epidemiology. 1995 Jan;6(1):61–66. doi: 10.1097/00001648-199501000-00012. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Poston W. S., 2nd, Foreyt J. P., Borrell L., Haddock C. K. Challenges in obesity management. South Med J. 1998 Aug;91(8):710–720. doi: 10.1097/00007611-199808000-00002. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Ransdell L. B., Wells C. L. Physical activity in urban white, African-American, and Mexican-American women. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1998 Nov;30(11):1608–1615. doi: 10.1097/00005768-199811000-00009. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Shakoor-Abdullah B., Kotchen J. M., Walker W. E., Chelius T. H., Hoffmann R. G. Incorporating socio-economic and risk factor diversity into the development of an African-American community blood pressure control program. Ethn Dis. 1997 Autumn;7(3):175–183. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Shankar S., Nanda J. P., Bonney G., Kofie V. Obesity differences between African-American men and women. J Natl Med Assoc. 2000 Jan;92(1):22–28. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Striegel-Moore R. H., Wilfley D. E., Caldwell M. B., Needham M. L., Brownell K. D. Weight-related attitudes and behaviors of women who diet to lose weight: a comparison of black dieters and white dieters. Obes Res. 1996 Mar;4(2):109–116. doi: 10.1002/j.1550-8528.1996.tb00522.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Winkleby M. A., Kraemer H. C., Ahn D. K., Varady A. N. Ethnic and socioeconomic differences in cardiovascular disease risk factors: findings for women from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994. JAMA. 1998 Jul 22;280(4):356–362. doi: 10.1001/jama.280.4.356. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of the National Medical Association are provided here courtesy of National Medical Association

RESOURCES