The Association of Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Health Insurance Status With the Prevalence of Overweight Among Children and Adolescents
Jennifer S. Haas, MD, MSPH,
Lisa B. Lee, BS,
Celia P. Kaplan, DrPH,
Dean Sonneborn, MA,
Kathryn A. Phillips, PhD and
Su-Ying Liang, PhD
Jennifer S. Haas is with the Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Womens Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass, and the Medical Effectiveness Research Center for Diverse Populations (MERC), University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Lisa B. Lee is with the School of Medicine, UCSF. Dean Sonneborn and Kathryn A. Phillips are with the Institute for Health Policy Studies, UCSF. Celia P. Kaplan is with the Division of General Internal Medicine and MERC, UCSF. Su-Ying Liang and Kathryn A. Phillips are with the School of Pharmacy, UCSF.
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Jennifer S. Haas, MD, MSPH, Division of General Medicine, Brigham and Womens Hospital, 75 Francis St, Boston, MA 02115 (e-mail: jhaas{at}partners.org).
Objectives. We examined the effect of race, socioeconomic status,and health insurance status on the prevalence of overweightamong children and adolescents.
Methods. We studied an observational cohort from the 1996 MedicalExpenditure Panel Survey Household Component.
Results. In the younger group, both Black and Latino childrenhad a greater likelihood of being overweight compared with Whitechildren. Among the adolescent group, Latinos and Asian/PacificIslanders were more likely to be overweight. Among adolescents,lacking health insurance and having public insurance were bothpositively associated with the prevalence of overweight. A relationshipbetween insurance status and overweight was not observed foryounger children.
Conclusions. There are substantial racial differences in theprevalence of overweight for children and adolescents. Healthinsurance status is associated with the prevalence of overweightamong adolescents. (Am J Public Health. 2003;93:21052110)
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