Background
Main text
Measuring adiposity in Asian-American children has unique challenges
High-risk cut points are poorly defined and lack specificity
Availability of data
Population Source | Jain, 2012 [19] | Guerrero, 2015 [17] | Diep, 2017 a [20] | APIAHF b [21] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Children aged 4; Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS)–Birth Cohort, 2001 | Children aged 2–11; California Health Interview Surveys, 2007–09 & 2011–12 | Children attending kindergarten- 2nd grade; Early Childhood Longitudinal Study –Kindergarten Class, 2010–11 | Children/adolescents aged 2–19; National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2011–14 | |||||
N | (%) | N | (%) | N | (%) | N | (%) | |
Chinese | 400 | (23.5) | 717 | (27.8) | 300 | (11.2) | 185 | (11.8) |
Japanese | 50 | (24.0) | 227 | (42.1) | – | 91 | (18.1) | |
Filipino | 150 | (28.4) | 455 | (39.6) | 100 | (24.8) | 111 | (29.5) |
Asian India/South Asian | 100 | (15.6) | 403 | (27.1) | 350 | (17.9) | 256 | (18.4) |
Korean | 50 | (20.2) | 385 | (26.8) | – | --c | ||
Vietnamese | 50 | (34.7) | 625 | (34.1) | 150 | (16.2) | 153 | (27.3) |
Other | 300 | (29.8) | 390 | (35.5) | 300 | (17.1) | – |
Opportunities
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Validation of measures of adiposity in classifying obesity in ethnic subgroups of children/adolescents to identify if, and at what ages, different cut points are warranted;
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Examination of trajectories of weight status/BMI among different subgroups to identify early differentiation;
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Exploration of potential early life, pregnancy, and in-utero variation that may account for differences in cardio-metabolic risk factors; and
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Additional exploration into the role of nativity and immigration status.
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Active communication and collaboration with communities of interest;
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Increasing efforts to oversample populations in regularly collected surveillance data, particularly as the US becomes increasingly diverse; and
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Pooling resources to increase study power and preserve anonymity of participants in larger prospective studies.