Recorded presentation

Kathleen Kromer Baker, PhD¹, Alvin T. Onaka, PhD¹, Brian Horiuchi, MPH¹, and James Dannemiller, President, MA². (1) Hawai`i Department of Health, Office of Health Status Monitoring, 1250 Punchbowl Street, Honolulu, HI 96813, 808-586-4733, kkbaker@mail.health.state.hi.us, (2) SMS Research, 1042 Fort Street Mall, Suite 200, Honolulu, HI 96813

Hawaii’s multi-cultural society provides an opportunity for detecting disparites in obesity and chronic health conditions by ethnicity/race variables. Overweight including obesity prevalence varies among ethnic/racial groups and is especially prevalent among Native Hawaiians, according to data from the Hawai`i Health Survey (HHS). Obesity is associated with increased prevalence of other chronic health conditions and self-perceived mental and physical health measurements (HQOL, 12 self-perceived mental and physical health questions, SF-12®).

The HHS is implemented by the Hawai`i Department of Health, Office of Health Status Monitoring. The HHS is an annual survey modeled after the National Health Interview Survey that gathers health, demographic, and socio-economic information on people living in Hawai`i (excluding homeless, households without phones, island of Ni`ihau, and group quarters). The survey, initiated in 1968 and a telephone survey since 1996, includes information on multiple ethnic/racial groups, demographic and socio-economic variables, and selected chronic conditions including obesity and HQOL.

The HHS when compared to national surveys has a much larger sample size for Native Hawaiians (which can be separated into full and/or part) enabling statistically reliable estimates for health conditions. The present report describes data collected from 1999 to 2002 on obesity prevalence and HQOL measurements for both full and part Native Hawaiian populations. The association and level of significance between obesity and HQOL measurements were examined statistically with SAS and SUDAAN programs. Evaluating several years of data has the advantage of increasing the sample size of Full Hawaiians. Implications and limitations will be discussed.

Learning Objectives: Learning Objectives

• Recognize that obesity varies among Hawaii's adult population by ethnic/racial group.
• Describe obesity and overweight prevalence within the Native Hawaiian population in Hawai`i in relation to health related quality of life and other variables.
• Discuss the trend in obesity from 1999-2003 for Native Hawaiians.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation