Prevalence of obesity in a Native Hawaiian population

Mortality data indicate that Native Hawaiians have higher death rates when compared with the US all-races population, and full-blooded Native Hawaiians are likely to have the highest mortality rates from heart disease in the nation. However, to date no comprehensive population-based study of risk factors in Native Hawaiians has been conducted. In this study of 257 Native Hawaiian adults, 62.8% of the women and 65.5% of the men were greater than or equal to 20% overweight by the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II) standards. Thirty-four percent of the women and 47% of the men were severely overweight. The mean body mass index (BMI, in kg/m2) was 30.3 in women and 30.9 in men. Women aged 45-54 y were heaviest with a mean BMI of 31.6. Of the men aged 25-34 y, 79.2% were overweight. The mean waist-to-hip ratio was 0.85 for women and 0.95 for men in this sample.