Ethnic Differences in Risk Factors for Obesity among Adults in California, the United States

Table 4

Multiple linear regression analysis of ethnic differences in risk factors for body mass index (BMI).

Characteristics	Whites	Latinos	Asians	African Americans	Largest difference between the β’s
	β (SE)	β (SE)	β (SE)	β (SE)
Gender
Male (ref)
Female	−1.20 (0.09)	0.15 (0.27)	−1.59 (0.27)	0.61 (0.42)	0.39 (Whites-Asians)
Age in years
18–44 (ref)
45–64	1.17 (0.12)	1.26 (0.29)	0.52 (0.26)	0.87 (0.43)	0.74 (Latinos-Asians)
65+	−0.17 (0.14)	−0.87 (0.42)	0.29 (0.45)	−2.00 (0.61)	1.13 (Latinos-African Americans)
Employment
No (ref)
Yes	0.11 (0.12)	−0.09 (0.32)	0.54 (0.28)	−2.29 (0.44)	—
Physical activity
No (ref)
Yes	−0.97 (0.09)	−0.46 (0.29)	0.28 (0.23)	−1.40 (0.40)	0.43 (Whites-African Americans)
Smoking status
Never (ref)
Current	−0.28 (0.14)	0.20 (0.34)	0.20 (0.39)	−0.78 (0.50)
Past	0.41 (0.10)	0.47 (0.26)	0.48 (0.37)	1.17 (0.52)	0.76 (African Americans-Whites)
Binge drinking
No (ref)
Infrequent	−0.02 (0.14)	0.10 (0.31)	1.27 (0.41)	0.63 (0.62)	—
Frequent	−0.20 (0.17)	0.001 (0.38)	0.62 (0.51)	1.82 (0.75)	—
Arthritis
No (ref)
Yes	1.37 (0.11)	1.88 (0.36)	1.28 (0.31)	1.51 (0.51)	0.60 (Latinos-Asians)
Diabetes medicine intake
No (ref)
Yes	4.42 (0.22)	2.01 (0.33)	2.12 (0.44)	3.40 (0.71)	2.41 (Whites-Latinos)
Serious psychological distress
No (ref)
Yes	0.30 (0.31)	0.13 (0.47)	−0.27 (0.47)	1.12 (1.24)	—

SE, standard error.
Notes. Sampling weights were used in analysis. Results in bold indicate to be statistically significant.
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