Obesity Development During Adolescence in a Biracial Cohort: The NHLBI Growth and Health Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study (NGHS) is a 10-year study to investigate the development of obesity in black and white girls during adolescence and its environmental and psychosocial correlates. The purpose of this report was to examine changes in the annual prevalence rates of overweight and obesity in the NGHS cohort from ages 9 to 19 years.Participants and Setting. A total of 2379 black and white girls, aged 9 to 10 years, were recruited from schools in Richmond, California, and Cincinnati, Ohio, and from families enrolled in a health maintenance organization in the Washington, DC area. Participant eligibility was limited to girls and their parents who declared themselves as being either black or white and who lived in racially concordant households.Design and Statistical Analysis. The NGHS is a multicenter prospective study of a biracial cohort followed annually from ages 9 to 10 years through 18 to 19 years. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was based on age-specific >85th and >95th percentile values, respectively, for body mass index based on the 1960 -1965 National Health Examination Survey reference population.Main Outcome Measures. The main outcome measures were body mass index (weight in kilograms divided by height in meters, squared) and proportions of girls who were "overweight" and "obese" by age and race.Results. The prevalence of overweight was 37% higher in blacks as compared with whites (30.6% vs 22.4%) even by age 9. The rate of overweight almost doubled in both groups during the 10-year period. By age 19, the rate of overweight was 56.9% in black and 41.3%, in white girls. The prevalence of obesity was 17.7% in black and 7.7% in white girls at 9 years old, and the rates also doubled during the study period.Conclusions. The doubling in the prevalence of overweight and obesity during adolescence in black and white NGHS girls was surprising. By age 19, more than half of black girls were overweight and more than one third were obese. Almost half of white girls were overweight and almost 1 of 5 girls were obese. These findings should sound an alarm for all primary care physicians and public health professionals to take heed of what is happening to our youth. Pediatrics 2002;110(5). URL: http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/110/5/e54; race, adolescence, body mass index, obesity, overweight, prevalence rates, females.ABBREVIATIONS. NGHS, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study; HMO, health maintenance organization; BMI, body mass index; NHES, National Health Examination Survey; NHANES, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.T he prevalence of childhood obesity has been increasing in recent years with a greater increase in minority population groups. [1][2][3][4][5][6] In the early 1960s, the prevalence of overweight was lower in black girls than in whites, 5 but because of racial differences in the secular trend, the prevalence of obesity in black girls is now twice greater than in white girls ...

Differences in body composition between pre-menarcheal and menarcheal Bengalee Hindu girls of Madhyamgram, West Bengal, India

“…However, the differences in adiposity levels between PMG and MG subjects are not the same in all ethnic groups. These ethnic dissimilarities in differences in adiposity between MG and PMG are of value in biological anthropological studies of human variation (Richardson et al, 1983;Wang and Bachrach, 1996;Kimm et al, 2001Kimm et al, , 2002Sampei et al, 2003).…”

“…It has been suggested that ethnic disparity in adiposity evolves during adolescence, although the specific age at which this occurs and the underlying factors are yet to be identified because of the paucity of current longitudinal cohort data among different ethnic groups (Kimm et al, 2001). Thus, ethnic variation in the adiposity difference between PMG and MG girls is of great interest to biological anthropologists investigating human variation (Beunen, et al, 1994;Brown et al, 1996;Kimm et al, 2001Kimm et al, , 2002. India is a large country with vast ethnic heterogeneity.…”

“…Differences in body composition between pre-menarcheal (PMG) and menarcheal (MG) girls vary between ethnic groups (Wang and Bachrach, 1996;Kimm et al, 2001Kimm et al, , 2002Sampei et al, 2003) and are thus useful in biological anthropological studies of human variation. There are many publications worldwide that have dealt with anthropometry and body composition among pre-pubertal and pubertal girls (Slaughter et al, 1988;Weststrate and Deurenberg, 1989;Deurenberg et al, 1990;Goran, 1999;Guo et al, 1993;Ramirez, 1993;Ohsawa et al, 1997;Leccia et al, 1999;Morrison et al, 2001a, b;Tahara et al, 2002;Sampei et al, 2003).…”

A Life Course Perspective on Health Trajectories and Transitions

“…For example in an analysis of 2,379 school children in the USA, Kimm et al showed that the prevalence of both overweight and obesity continued to rise from ages 9-19 years in both black and white females, with very large increases in the late teenage years (Kimm et al 2002). At age nine 30.6 % of black females and 22.4 % of white females were overweight, rising to 39.3 % and 24.1 % respectively at age 16 and 56.9 % and 41.3 % at age 19.…”

Caught in the Bulimic Trap? Socioeconomic Status, State Dependence, and Unobserved Heterogeneity

“…The NHLBI Growth and Health survey was constructed to have equal numbers of African Americans and Whites, and to have approximately equal representation across di¤erent income groups for African Americans and Whites (Kimm et al, 2002). While it is not a nationally representative sample, the strati…cation by race and income are ideal for examining the role that these demographics play in the incidence and persistence of BN.…”