TY - JOUR
T1 - Obesity trends by industry of employment in the United States, 2004 to 2011
AU - Jackson, Chandra L.
AU - Wee, Christina C.
AU - Hurtado, David A.
AU - Kawachi, Ichiro
N1 - Funding Information:
Dr. Jackson was supported by grant 1UL1 TR001102-07, and Dr. Wee by a National Institutes of Health Mid-Career Mentorship Award (K24 DK087932). Funding sources were not involved in the data collection, data analysis, manuscript writing, and publication. The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The first author, with full access to the data, takes responsibility for data integrity and the data analysis accuracy. This work was presented, in part, at The Obesity Society Conference in Boston, Massachusetts from November 2-7, 2014.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Jackson et al.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Background: Obesity is associated with increased morbidity, occupational injuries, and premature mortality. Obesity also disproportionately affects blacks and socioeconomically disadvantaged workers. However, few studies have evaluated national trends of obesity by employment industry overall and especially by race. Methods: To investigate national trends of obesity by employment industry overall and by race, we estimated the agestandardized obesity prevalence from 2004 to 2011. We used direct age-standardization with the 2000 US Census population as the standard among 136,923 adults in the US National Health Interview Survey. We also estimated prevalence ratios (PRs) for obesity in black women andmen compared to their white counterparts for each employment industry using adjusted Poisson regression models with robust variance. Results: Obesity prevalence increased for men and women over the study period across all employment industry categories, and the healthcare industry had the highest overall age-standardized prevalence (30 %). Black women had a significantly higher obesity prevalence than white women across all employment industry categories, ranging from 33 % (95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.16,1.52) in Professional/Management to 74 % in Education (95 % CI: 1.56,1.93). Obesity prevalence was higher among black than white men for Healthcare (PR = 1.39 [1.15,1.69]), Education (PR = 1.39 [1.17,1.67]), Public Administration (PR = 1.34 [1.20,1.49]), and Manufacturing (PR = 1.19 [1.11,1.27]). Differences in obesity prevalence by race were generally widest in professional/management occupations. Conclusions: Obesity trends varied substantially overall as well as within and between race-gender groups across employment industries. These findings demonstrate the need for further investigation of racial and sociocultural disparities in the work-obesity relationship to employ strategies designed to address these disparities while improving health among all US workers. Further research and interventions among workers in industries with an increasing or high prevalence of obesity should be prioritized.
AB - Background: Obesity is associated with increased morbidity, occupational injuries, and premature mortality. Obesity also disproportionately affects blacks and socioeconomically disadvantaged workers. However, few studies have evaluated national trends of obesity by employment industry overall and especially by race. Methods: To investigate national trends of obesity by employment industry overall and by race, we estimated the agestandardized obesity prevalence from 2004 to 2011. We used direct age-standardization with the 2000 US Census population as the standard among 136,923 adults in the US National Health Interview Survey. We also estimated prevalence ratios (PRs) for obesity in black women andmen compared to their white counterparts for each employment industry using adjusted Poisson regression models with robust variance. Results: Obesity prevalence increased for men and women over the study period across all employment industry categories, and the healthcare industry had the highest overall age-standardized prevalence (30 %). Black women had a significantly higher obesity prevalence than white women across all employment industry categories, ranging from 33 % (95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.16,1.52) in Professional/Management to 74 % in Education (95 % CI: 1.56,1.93). Obesity prevalence was higher among black than white men for Healthcare (PR = 1.39 [1.15,1.69]), Education (PR = 1.39 [1.17,1.67]), Public Administration (PR = 1.34 [1.20,1.49]), and Manufacturing (PR = 1.19 [1.11,1.27]). Differences in obesity prevalence by race were generally widest in professional/management occupations. Conclusions: Obesity trends varied substantially overall as well as within and between race-gender groups across employment industries. These findings demonstrate the need for further investigation of racial and sociocultural disparities in the work-obesity relationship to employ strategies designed to address these disparities while improving health among all US workers. Further research and interventions among workers in industries with an increasing or high prevalence of obesity should be prioritized.
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U2 - 10.1186/S40608-016-0100-X
DO - 10.1186/S40608-016-0100-X
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85029647962
SN - 2052-9538
VL - 3
JO - BMC Obesity
JF - BMC Obesity
IS - 1
M1 - 20
ER -