ETSU faculty and students publish obesity study

Dr. Liang Wang, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology in the College of Public Health, is lead author on an article in the Journal of Obesity.  The article, entitled “Ethnic Differences in Risk Factors for Obesity among Adults in California, the United States”, utilizes data from the California Health Interview Survey to examine differences in risk factors for obesity among whites, Latinos, Asians, and African Americans.

Co-authors from the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology include faculty members Dr. Kesheng Wang, and Dr. Arsham Alamian, and doctoral student Marc Stevens.  Dr. Beth Bailey, Professor and Vice Chair of Primary Research for the Department of Family Medicine at Quillen College of Medicine, Dr. Jodi Southerland in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health of the College of Public Health at East Tennessee State University, and Dr. Youfa Wang from the College of Health at Ball State University are also authors.

The risk factors for obesity among white people were identified as gender, age, physical activity, smoking, arthritis, and diabetes medicine intake. Risk factors associated with Asian and Latino individuals also included age, arthritis, and diabetes medication intake. However, the Asian population studied had binge drinking as an additional risk factor. Risk factors for obesity among African Americans included gender, physical activity, smoking, binge drinking, and diabetes medication intake.

The authors also found that African Americans have the highest prevalence (36.1%) of obesity followed by Latinos (33.6%) and whites (22.0%) with Asians (9.8%) having the lowest prevalence of the study sample. Findings highlight that race/ethnicity need to be considered when developing obesity prevention programs.

The Journal of Obesity is a peer-reviewed, open access journal that publishes original research articles, review articles, and clinical studies in all areas of obesity.