Black-white disparities in overweight and obesity trends by educational attainment in the United States,1997-2008

Background. few studies have examined racial and educational disparities in recent population-based trends. methods. we analyzed data of a nationally representative sample of 174,228 us-born adults in the national health interview survey from 1997 to 2008. we determined mean bmi trends by educational attainment and race and black-white prevalence ratios (prs) for overweight/obesity (bmi > 25 kg/m2) using adjusted poisson regression with robust variance. results. from 1997 to 2008,bmi increased by ≥1 kg/m2 in all race-sex groups,and appeared to increase faster among whites. blacks with greater than a high school education (ghse) had a consistently higher bmi over time than whites in both women (28.3 ± 0.14 to 29.7 ± 0.18 kg/m2 versus 25.8 ± 0.58 to 26.5 ± 0.08 kg/m2) and men (28.1 ± 0.17 kg/m2 to 29.0 ± 0.20 versus 27.1 ± 0.04 kg/m2 to 28.1 ± 0.06 kg/m2). for participants of all educational attainment levels,age-adjusted overweight/obesity was greater by 44% (95% ci: 1.42-1.46) in black versus white women and 2% (1.01-1.04) in men. among those with ghse,overweight/obesity prevalence was greater (pr: 1.52; 1.49-1.55) in black versus white women,but greater (1.07; 1.05-1.09) in men. conclusions. bmi increased steadily in all race-sex and education groups from 1997 to 2008,and blacks (particularly women) had a consistently higher bmi than their white counterparts. overweight/obesity trends and racial disparities were more prominent among individuals with higher education levels,compared to their counterparts with lower education levels. © 2013 chandra l. jackson et al.