Possible contributors to the differing prevalence of obesity between adult African-American and Caucasian women: The role of dietary intake.

Abstract

Obesity is one of the most prevalent and consequential health problems facing adult women in the United States. Adult African-American women may be at particular risk, since this group experiences nearly twice the prevalence of obesity as adult Caucasian women. The goal of this study was to examine the role of dietary intake in the excess of obesity among African-American women. Eighty-two African-American women and 120 Caucasian women enrolled in their second consecutive year of college at the University of Michigan were studied. Data collected from each woman included her current measured height and weight, her self-reported weight at the start of the first fall year of college, and her usual dietary intake since starting college. Using body mass index to reflect body size, African-American women were not found to be significantly more obese than Caucasian women at the start of the first fall year of college. Additionally, the rate of change in body size from the start of the first full year of college to a point during the second year of college did not differ between the racial groups. This latter finding did not change when dietary intake variables and potential confounders (socioeconomic status, cigarette smoking status, oral contraceptive use, and physical activity) were controlled. The analysis was extended to determine whether different dietary variables were related to the change in body size over time within each racial group. Although models were identified that did include different dietary variables for each racial group (total caloric intake for African-American women and cholesterol intake for Caucasian women), the strongest predictor variables of the change in body size over time identified within each racial group were not related to dietary intake. Additionally, very little of the variability in the change in body size over time within each racial group was explained by variables collected in this study. In conclusion, dietary intake was not an important confounder of a race-obesity association in this study. Additionally, there are probably important predictors of the change in body size over time within African-American and Caucasian women that were not identified in this study.