Abstract
Background : There are significant disparities in the prevalence of obesity among African American, American Indian, and Hispanic adolescents compared to White adolescents. The Michigan Department of Community Health considers Arab Americans a minority group and differentiates them from Whites. However, nothing is known about the prevalence of obesity among Arab American adolescents.
Purpose : To determine the prevalence of obesity among Arab American adolescents seeking care in a clinical setting.
Methods : This is a descriptive correlational study design involving the use of medical record data from a community-based health clinic. A nonprobability consecutive sampling strategy was used to identify medical records of Arab Americans seeking care between 12 and 19 years of age from 2013 to 2016. Approximately 476 subjects were required to reject the hypothesis of zero correlation at a 5% level of significance with 95% power. Prevalence was compared with the prevalence from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011- 2014.
Results : Among 476 of Arab American adolescents, (14.5 %) were at risk of being overweight (> 85th and < 95th percentile for age and sex) and (15.5%) were obese (> 95th percentile for age and sex). Among all adolescents, no difference was seen by sex or age. The prevalence of obesity was higher among Arab American adolescents (15.5%) compared with nonHispanic white (14.7%).
Conclusions : The proposed research is innovative in that it considers Arab Americans as an independent race and ethnic group. Also, it provides essential primary statistical data for future research about the phenomenon of obesity among Arab American adolescents and helps in developing the appropriate interventions.