ABSTRACT

This article examines the contribution of weight status to black-white (B-W) differences in mortality at ages 40–79 using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We measured body mass index (BMI) based on the highest BMI attained and contrasted the contribution of BMI to that of smoking and educational attainment. We estimated both additive and multiplicative models. In addition to estimating regression coefficients we asked what would happen to B-W differences in mortality if blacks had the BMI distribution of whites, the smoking prevalence of whites, or the educational distribution of whites. B-W differences in BMI account for close to 30 percent of the B-W difference in female mortality but only about 1 percent of the B-W difference in male mortality at ages 40–79. In contrast, smoking makes a much larger contribution to the B-W difference in male (17 percent) than female (6 percent) mortality. Differences in educational attainment in turn explain 19 to 25 percent of the B-W mortality difference among men and women, respectively. Our results underscore the importance of two key risk factors as well as educational attainment in generating B-W differences in mortality.

 抽象的

本文利用国家健康和营养检查调查的数据，探讨了体重状况对 40-79 岁黑人和白人死亡率差异的影响。我们根据达到的最高 BMI 测量体重指数 (BMI)，并将 BMI 与吸烟和教育程度的贡献进行对比。我们估计了加法模型和乘法模型。除了估计回归系数之外，我们还询问如果黑人具有白人的 BMI 分布、白人的吸烟率或白人的受教育程度分布，那么 BW 死亡率差异会发生什么。 BMI 的体重差异占女性死亡率体重差异的近 30%，但仅占 40-79 岁男性死亡率体重差异的 1% 左右。相比之下，吸烟对男性体重差异（17%）死亡率的影响远大于女性（6%）死亡率。教育程度的差异反过来又分别解释了男性和女性 BW 死亡率差异的 19% 至 25%。我们的结果强调了两个关键风险因素以及教育程度在造成 BW 死亡率差异方面的重要性。