Variation in the relationship of body mass index to disease in different populations
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The aim of this study was to compare obesity as assessed by body mass index (BMI) and the relationship of BMI to hypertension and diabetes in three different populations of adult women from widely divergent ethno-geographical extraction. In total, 50 adult women from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw (aboriginal American Indians), 155 from American Samoa (Polynesian ancestry) and 367 African Americans from West Alabama surveyed in the early to mid 1990s participated in the study. All three groups are known to have very high levels of overweight and obesity, hypertension and diabetes, and to consume a calorically dense diet, along with low physical activity. However, the Samoans are substantially more obese but have lower rates of hypertension than the African Americans, and lower rates of diabetes than the Choctaw women. The authors conclude that besides the genetic background, a BMI ≥30 appears to have a different meaning in the relationship to disease for women from these selected populations.
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