Adolescent physical activity and inactivity vary by ethnicity: The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health☆,☆☆,★
Section snippets
Sample Design
The study population consists of over 20,000 adolescents enrolled in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative, school-based sample of adolescents in grades 7 to 12 in the United States. The collection of data followed informed consent procedures established by the institutional review board of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Add Health was longitudinal; the first wave of data (wave 1) was obtained between April and December 1995, and the
Overweight Prevalence
Overweight prevalence (BMI ≥85th/95th percentiles, Figure) is highest among non-Hispanic black females (39.4/19.8%) and Hispanic males (30.2/12.6%) and females (29.8/13.5%) and lowest for Asian females (11.1/4.2%). Rates among the ethnic subpopulations were high for Cuban females (37.8/16.2%) and Puerto
DISCUSSION
Add Health provides the unique opportunity to examine patterns of overweight, physical activity, and inactivity among large and nationally representative samples of ethnic subpopulation groups (eg, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans). Other national surveys have collected these data for selected ethnic groups (mainly whites, Hispanics or Mexican-Americans, and non-Hispanic blacks or blacks) but lack the depth of coverage and the detailed sociodemographic data of Add Health.
As noted in the text,
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Supported in part by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant P01-HD31921 and the Dannon Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Nutrition Science.
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Reprint requests: Penny Gordon-Larsen, PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carolina Population Center, University Square, 123 West Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-3997.
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