African Americans

Overweight and Obesity

Overweight and obesity have been increasing for some years in the U.S. population as a whole, but rates are higher among most minority groups, with the exception of Asian Americans, and African Americans have experienced some of the highest increases.

This is a matter of both medical and public health concern because overweight and obesity in adults are associated with lower levels of health and higher risk of many diseases, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer, and are also associated with increased severity of other diseases including hypertension and arthritis. In children and adolescents, overweight and obesity increase the risk of becoming an overweight adult, and also increase the risk of diabetes, high cholesterol, and liver abnormalities.

For U.S. adults aged 20–74, the age-adjusted rate of overweight (defined as body mass index, BMI ≥25) has increased steadily since 1960. According to data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), in 1960–62, 44.8 percent of adults were overweight.

This increased in 1971–74 to 47.7 percent, in 1976–80 to 47.4 percent, in 1988–94 to 56.0 percent, and in 2001–04 to 66.0 percent. In the non-Hispanic Caucasian population, men are more likely to be overweight than women; this pattern is reversed in the African-American population, where women are more likely than men to be overweight. In 1976–80, 53.8 percent of Caucasian, non-Hispanic men and 38.7 percent of Caucasian, non-Hispanic women were overweight; while for African Americans, the numbers were 51.3 and 62.6 percent, respectively. In 1988–94, 61.6 percent of Caucasian men and 47.2 percent of Caucasian women were overweight compared to 58.2 percent of African-American men and 68.5 percent of African-American women. In 2001–04, 71.1 percent of Caucasian men and 57.1 percent of Caucasian women were overweight compared to 66.8 percent of African-American men and 79.5 percent of African-American women.

Rates of obesity (defined as BMI ≥30) have also increased steadily in the U.S. population since 1960. Note that in the sources for these statistics, obesity is treated as a subcategory within overweight, so the [Page 17]two categories should not be added together. In 1960–62, 13.3 percent of the U.S. population was obese; in 1971–74, this increased to 14.6 percent, in 1976–80 to 15.1 percent, in 1988–1994 to 23.3 percent, and in 2001–03 to 32.1 percent. The rate of obesity has therefore increased more rapidly in the United States since 1960 than the rate of overweight. In distinction to overweight, women are more likely to be obese than men in both the Caucasian and African-American racial categories.

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