Recent studies point to the overlooked issue of obesity among Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islanders and multiracial Asian Americans.
The latest research from Kaiser Permanente Northern California found obesity rates among 8 different subgroups of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders increasing from 2013 through 2023.
Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders had the highest rate of obesity among all the groups. NHPI had a prevalence rate of well over 50% in 2023 and hovered around 70% when the index was lowered to a Body Mass Index from 30 to 27.5 which some researchers suggest.
“The lower BMI threshold of 27.5 has been recommended by some to support clinical decision-making on when to treat obesity because studies have found that, overall, Asian adults develop cardiometabolic disease at lower BMI levels than White adults,” explained senior author Alan Go.
The Kaiser study looked at data from its patients during the ten-year period beginning in 2013 among Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Vietnamese.
Also, of concern are Filipino and other Southeast Asian women. 48% had a BMI of 48%. Among Southeast Asian men, that rate is 60%.
Another study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in March of last year revealed 52% of people who identified as Asian, Pacific Islander and White had a BMI of 30 or higher. The second highest was those who identified as other Pacific Islander, 49.5%.
The authors wrote “Some Asian subgroups may have higher socioeconomic attainment compared with others, allowing them to have healthier lifestyles and better access to health care. Some studies have shown differences in health behaviors such as sleep, exercise, and diet. In studies using community samples, Asian individuals typically had shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality compared with non-Hispanic White people.”
Registration is closed for Common Ground: Building Together conference and gala award banquet in San Francisco on January 24. A shoutout to our planning committee: Jane Chin, Frank Mah, Jeannie Young, Akemi Tamanaha, Nathan Soohoo, Mark Young, Dave Liu, and Yiming Fu.
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