Abstract
Objective:
To examine the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and metabolic syndrome for Asian Americans and non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs), given that existing evidence shows racial/ethnic heterogeneity exists in how BMI predicts metabolic syndrome.
Research Design and Methods:
Electronic health records of 43 507 primary care patients aged 35 years and older with self-identified race/ethnicity of interest (Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese or NHW) were analyzed in a mixed-payer, outpatient-focused health-care organization in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Results:
Metabolic syndrome prevalence is significantly higher in Asians compared with NHWs for every BMI category. For women at the mean age of 55 and BMI of 25 kg m–2, the predicted prevalence of metabolic syndrome is 12% for NHW women compared with 30% for Asians; similarly for men, the predicted prevalence of metabolic syndrome is 22% for NHWs compared with 43% of Asians. Compared with NHW women and men with a BMI of 25 kg m–2, comparable prevalence of metabolic syndrome was observed at BMI of 19.6 kg m–2 for Asian women and 19.9 kg m–2 for Asian men. A similar pattern was observed in disaggregated Asian subgroups.
Conclusions:
In spite of the lower BMI values and lower prevalence of overweight/obesity than NHWs, Asian Americans have higher rates of metabolic syndrome over the range of BMI. Our results indicate that BMI ranges for defining overweight/obesity in Asian populations should be lower than for NHWs.
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Acknowledgements
This study is supported by the American Heart Association 0885049N: Asian American Heart Study; and NIDDK/NIH 1 R01 DK081371-01A1 (identifying disparities in type 2 diabetes among Asian Americans: The Pan Asian Cohort Study).
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The study was presented as an abstract at the American Heart Association Joint Conference for Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention and Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism, 10–14 March 2009.
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All research conducted for this study was approved by the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Institutional Review Board. This material has not been published previously (either in print or electronically) and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
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Palaniappan, L., Wong, E., Shin, J. et al. Asian Americans have greater prevalence of metabolic syndrome despite lower body mass index. Int J Obes 35, 393–400 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2010.152
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2010.152
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