Multimorbidity Accumulation Among Middle-Aged Americans: Differences by Race/Ethnicity and Body Mass Index.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Obesity and multimorbidity are more prevalent among U.S. racial/ethnic minority groups. Evaluating racial/ethnic disparities in disease accumulation according to body mass index (BMI) may guide interventions to reduce multimorbidity burden in vulnerable racial/ethnic groups.

Method

We used data from the 1998-2016 Health and Retirement Study on 8 106 participants aged 51-55 at baseline. Disease burden and multimorbidity (≥2 co-occurring diseases) were assessed using 7 chronic diseases: arthritis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, lung disease, and stroke. Four BMI categories were defined per convention: normal, overweight, obese class 1, and obese class 2/3. Generalized estimating equations models with inverse probability weights estimated the accumula

SUBMITTER: Botoseneanu A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8824553 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature