DIABETES AND ASSOCIATED RISK-FACTORS AMONG NATIVE-AMERICANS

OBJECTIVE- To estimate the prevalence of diabetes and related risk fac tors among Native Americans. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS - We used 198 8-1989 data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to cal culate the overall, age-adjusted prevalence of diabetes, obesity, sede ntary life-style, hypertension, and smoking among Native Americans. Th e SESUDAAN software package was used to derive confidence intervals. R ESULTS- The prevalence of diabetes was 11.6% among the 768 Native Amer ican Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System respondents (95% confi dence interval 7.8-15.4) and 4.7% among the 121,986 white respondents (95% confidence interval 4.6-4.8). The age-adjusted prevalence of diab etes was 2.5 times higher among Native Americans than among whites. Th e prevalence of obesity was higher among Native Americans (34.4; 95% c onfidence interval 31.7-37.1) than among whites (23.9%; confidence int erval 23.7-24.1). The prevalences of sedentary lifestyle (58%), hypert ension (16%), and smoking (28%) were similar among both populations. C ONCLUSIONS- The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System may prove a s a useful tool for surveying Native Americans living on and off reser vations for inclusion in national estimates of diabetes prevalences.