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Predictions Across Race/Ethnicity, Immigrant Generation, and Sex

Kathleen Mullan Harris, PhD; Krista M. Perreira, PhD; Dohoon Lee, PhD

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(11):1022-1028.

Objective  To trace how racial/ethnic and immigrant disparities in body mass index (BMI) change over time as adolescents (age, 11-19 years) transition to young adulthood (age, 20-28 years).

Design  We used growth curve modeling to estimate the pattern of change in BMI from adolescence through the transition to adulthood.

Setting  All participants in the study were residents of the United States enrolled in junior high school or high school during the 1994-1995 school year.

Participants  More than 20 000 adolescents from nationally representative data interviewed at wave I (1994-1995) and followed up in wave II (1996) and III (2001-2002) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health when the sample was in early adulthood.

Main Exposures  Race/ethnicity, immigrant generation, and sex.

Outcome Measure  Body mass index.

Results  Findings indicate significant differences in both the level and change in BMI across age by sex, race/ethnicity, and immigrant generation. Females, second- and third-generation immigrants, and Hispanic and black individuals experience more rapidly increasing BMIs from adolescence into young adulthood. Increases in BMI are relatively lower for males, first-generation immigrants, and white and Asian individuals.

Conclusion  Disparities in BMI and prevalence of overweight and obesity widen with age as adolescents leave home and begin independent lives as young adults in their 20s.

Author Affiliations: Department of Sociology (Dr Harris), Carolina Population Center (Drs Harris and Perreira), and Department of Public Policy (Dr Perreira), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill; and Office of Population Research, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey (Dr Lee).

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