Class III obesity continues to rise in African-American women

Background: The Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey, a random telephone survey of the United States, found a rising prevalence of Class III obesity, body mass index (BMI) >40 kg/m(2). African-American women were largely responsible for this increase. The prevalence of Class III obesity in African-American women in the BRFSS during the year 2000 was 6%, identical to the Pennington Biomedical Research Center (PBRC) database during the same year. The PBRC Database might predict the trend in class III obesity in the years 2000-2002. Methods: The PBRC is an academic research center in Baton Rouge, that maintains a database with information collected by telephone regarding BMI and race, for subjects responding to solicitations to participate in clinical trials. This database contains 7,787 subjects entered from 1995 through 2002, of which 1,820 were African-American women and 3,006 were Caucasian women. The prevalence of Class III obesity was plotted for women of these 2 racial groups and compared with the year 2000 prevalence in the BRFSS. Results: The prevalence of Class III obesity in African-American women increased from 0.5% in 1995 to 6% in 2000 (identical to the BRFSS) and to 7.5% in 2002. The prevalence of Class III obesity in Caucasian women remained about 3%. Conclusion: The prevalence of Class III obesity continues to rise in African-American women, a group with greater need and less access to obesity surgery, the only effective treatment, than Caucasian women, an inequality deserving of public policy attention.