Obesity and employment as predictors of diabetes in Mexican Americans: findings from a longitudinal study

Abstract

This article examines changes in weight loss and employment on the incidence and management of diabetes over an eight-year period. Using data from three panel waves of the Border Epidemiologic Study on Aging, collected between 1995 and 2003, estimation results from a set of logit regression models reveal that obese individuals, who lose weight over an eight-year period, are less likely to be diagnosed with diabetes than those who remain obese in waves two and three. Moreover, employment, an important covariate in all three waves, is associated with the lower likelihood of being diagnosed with diabetes. In all, results confirm findings from cross-sectional data that point to overweight and obesity as important predictors of diabetes and further support public policy efforts that aim at controlling the rising incidence of diabetes through tailored interventions.

Acknowledgement

This study was funded by a National Institutes of Health (NIH-NIGMS) grant (NIH#78BT498W).

Notes

¹Data from the Border Epidemiologic Study of Aging, a twelve-year study funded by The National Institutes on Aging (1994–2006) are employed in the research presented here.

²Of those contacted who met the selection criteria, 92% agreed to complete in-home face-to-face interviews in either Spanish or English. All subjects received a stipend for completing the face-to-face interviews.

³Estimations are available upon request from the first author.