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. 2012 Apr 5;9:E81. doi: 10.5888/pcd9.110185

Table 1.

Self-Reported Characteristics of Overweight and Obese Female Patients at Community Health Centers, by Race/Ethnicity and Health Literacya, Suffolk County, New York, 2008

Characteristic Non-Hispanic Black, n (%) (n = 170) Hispanic, n (%) (n = 118) Non-Hispanic White, n (%) (n = 109) Higher Literacy, n (%) (n = 140) Lower Literacy, n (%) (n = 222) Overall, n (%) (N = 397)
Diabetesb
High perceived risk 29 (18.6) 27 (24.1) 32 (30.2) 28 (23.7) 27 (15.3) 88 (23.5)
Low perceived risk 127 (81.4) 85 (75.9) 74 (69.8) 90 (76.3) 149 (84.7) 286 (76.5)
Family history 111 (67.7) 77 (67.5) 63 (60.0) 86 (63.2) 141 (66.2) 251 (65.5)
No family history 53 (32.3) 37 (32.5) 42 (40.0) 50 (36.8) 72 (33.8) 132 (34.5)
Heart diseasec
High perceived risk 23 (14.2) 16 (14.2) 26 (24.5) 22 (17.5) 23 (12.5) 65 (17.1)
Low perceived risk 139 (85.8) 97 (85.8) 80 (75.5) 104 (82.5) 161 (87.5) 316 (82.9)
Family history 57 (37.0) 48 (47.5) 57 (57.6) 65 (49.6) 83 (42.6) 162 (45.8)
No family history 97 (63.0)d 53 (52.5) 42 (42.4) 66 (50.4) 112 (57.4) 192 (54.2)
Age, y
<40 93 (56.0) 69 (61.6)e 51 (48.1) 80 (58.0) 112 (52.1) 213 (55.5)
≥40 73 (44.0) 43 (38.4) 55 (51.9) 58 (42.0) 103 (47.9) 171 (44.5)
Weight perception
Perceives self as overweight 109 (64.5) 76 (65.0) 87 (79.8)e 111 (79.9)f 136 (61.5) 272 (68.9)
Does not perceive self as overweight 60 (35.5) 41 (35.0) 22 (20.2) 28 (20.1) 85 (38.5) 123 (31.1)
Overweight is personal health problem 89 (52.7) 64 (56.1) 52 (47.7) 68 (49.3) 119 (54.1) 205 (52.3)
Overweight is not personal health problem 80 (47.3) 50 (43.9) 57 (52.3) 70 (50.7) 101 (45.9) 187 (47.7)
a

Assessed using the Newest Vital Sign instrument (18) and defined as adequate health literacy ("higher") vs any likelihood of limited health literacy ("lower"). The 2 categories do not add to the total of 397 because not all respondents took the literacy test.

b

Comparison group was low perceived risk. Participants diagnosed with diabetes (n = 92) were excluded from this analysis.

c

Participants diagnosed with heart disease (n = 57) were excluded from this analysis.

d

P < .01.

e

P < .05.

f

P < .001.