Background And Significance: Immune Function And Inflammation Core: Co- Directors: Charles B. Stephensen, PhD. Mark Shigenaga, PhD A 1. Asthma and other chronic diseases are linked to obesity in minority youth The epidemic of obesity that is currently sweeping the U.S. is affecting adolescents as well as adults, and is particularly evident in African American and Hispanic youth (Popkin and Udry 1998; Dwyer, Stone et al. 2000). This unprecedented increase in body mass index (BMI) in adolescents is an unhealthy trend since high BMIs increase the risk of developing chronic disease, including asthma, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Recent studies in urban African American and Hispanic children and adolescents have documented this association of obesity with asthma risk (Gennuso, Epstein et al. 1998; Luder, Melnik et al. 1998; von Mutius, Schwartz et al. 2001). This association is in addition to the increased burden of asthma that inner city children may face as a result of increased exposure to allergens in substandard housing (Eggleston, Rosenstreich et al. 1998). Type 2 diabetes, long considered an adult-onset disease associated with obesity, is now being diagnosed in adolescents, particularly African Americans and Hispanics (Bourgeois 2002). Poor health behaviors (e.g., high dietary cholesterol, increased body fat) that are risk factors for cardiovascular disease are also more prevalent in African American and Hispanic adolescents than in their European American counterparts (Fardy, Azz.ollini et al. 2000).
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