Diabetes and Associated Risk Factors Among Asian American Subgroups in New York City

The diabetes burden is disproportionately experienced by minorities in the U.S., particularly diverse Asian American subgroups. National age-adjusted diabetes rates range from 4.0% among Koreans to 14.2% among Asian Indians (1). In New York City (NYC), foreign-born South Asians have an age-adjusted diabetes prevalence nearly twice as high as foreign-born “other Asians” (13.6 vs. 7.4%) (2). Existing studies on Asian Americans are hampered by a lack of generalizability or inability to distinguish between Asian subgroups (2,3). Our study builds upon the existing literature by examining diabetes prevalence rates and risk factors among three of the largest Asian American subgroups in NYC. The current analysis uses combined data from three waves of the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health across the U.S. (REACH U.S.) Risk Factor Survey (2009–2011). An address-based sampling frame method was used to oversample Asian Americans while reducing the bias of traditional random-digit dialing; further details on methodology are described elsewhere (4). …