Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of the study sample by high school BMIa.
| < 18.5 kg/m2 underweight (n=535) | 18.5-24.9 kg/m2 normal (n=2246) | 25.0-29.9 kg/m2 overweight (n=276) | ≥ 30.0 kg/m2 obese (n=97) | P value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median high school | 17.6 | 20.7 | 26.6 | 32.9 | |
| BMI, kg/m2 | |||||
| Age at baseline, years | 45.8 (2.7) | 45.9 (2.7) | 45.8 (2.7) | 45.5 (2.4) | 0.52 |
| Ethnicityb | |||||
| Caucasian | 193 (12.9) | 1118 (74.8) | 142 (9.5) | 41 (2.7) | <0.01 |
| African-American | 149 (16.9) | 587 (66.5) | 97 (11.0) | 50 (5.7) | <0.01 |
| Chinese | 79 (32.2) | 158 (64.5) | 7 (2.9) | 1 (0.4) | <0.01 |
| Hispanic | 55 (21.5) | 175 (68.4) | 23 (9.0) | 3 (1.2) | 0.07 |
| Japanese | 59 (21.4) | 208 (75.4) | 7 (2.5) | 2 (0.7) | <0.01 |
| Education, n (%) of college graduates | 208 (39.3) | 1009 (45.1) | 98 (35.6) | 34.7 | <0.01 |
| Ever-married | 471 (88.4) | 1966 (87.6) | 222 (80.4) | 71 (73.2) | <0.01 |
| History of smoking | 205 (38.5) | 946 (42.5) | 137 (50.0) | 53 (55.2) | <0.01 |
| Lowest SES categoryc | 47 (8.8) | 186 (8.3) | 38 (13.8) | 14 (14.4) | <0.01 |
a
Unless otherwise indicated, continuous variables presented as mean (SD) with P values calculated by Kruskal- Wallis tests. Categorical variables presented as n (percent) with P values calculated by χ2.
b
Distribution of women by BMI categories within ethnicity
c
SES, socioeconomic status