TITLE:
Racial disparities in obesity for males & females in three southern states in the US, across SES categories
AUTHORS:
Bisakha Sen, Payal Patel-Dovlatabadi
KEYWORDS:
Race; Gender; Socioeconomic Status; Obesity Prevalence; Disparities
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.4 No.12A,
December
31,
2012
ABSTRACT: Objectives: Obesity
rates in US are substantially higher among African-Americans than Whites.
Racial disparities in obesity are sometimes ascribed to racial differences in
socio-economic-status (SES). We used data from three states in the southern
region of the US with high rates of obesity, to examine the extent of racial disparities within SES categories,
particularly examining whether disparities grow smaller at higher levels of
income and education. Methods: We used data (2001-2009) from the Behavioral
Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for 79,676 respondents, African-American
and white, from Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. Multivariate logistic
regressions were estimated. Analyses were conducted separately for males and
females, for the full sample and by levels of education, income and aggregate
SES. Risk-differences (RD), and Relative-Risk-Ratios (RR) were reported to
enable inspection of magnitudes of racial
gaps, which more conventional odds-ratios does not allow researchers to
do. Results: The obesity-gap between African-Americans
and Whites is larger for females than males. For males the gap becomes
smaller and insignificant in higher education and income categories. For
females, the gap remains statistically significant and is of comparable
magnitude across all education and income categories. Conclusions: Racial disparities in obesity among males can be
largely attributed to SES differences. However, racial disparities among
females cannot simply be attributed to racial disparities in SES. Thus,
reducing racial differences in income and education may not help reduce
disparities in obesity risk among White and African-American females. Further
research is required to understand why racial disparities in obesity exist
within specific SES categories for females.