Abstract
Research is limited on the health of foreign-born Blacks (FBBs), who are often grouped with African Americans. This study compared obesity and diabetes odds in FBBs and US-born Blacks (USBBs) in NYC. Analyzing the 2009–2013 NYC Community Health Survey (3701 FBBs and 6297 USBBs), weighted multivariate logistic regression examined odds of obesity and diabetes, adjusting for age, gender, education, income, marital status, children < 18, BMI (for diabetes only) and duration of residence. FBBs had lower odds of obesity [OR 0.62 (95% CI 0.54, 0.72)] and greater odds of diabetes [OR 1.24 (95% CI 1.01, 1.52)] compared to USBBs. FBBs had 1.4 times the odds of diabetes at overweight status, compared to USBBs [OR 1.40 (95% CI 1.01, 1.95)]. Living in the US ≥ 10 years was not associated with odds of obesity and diabetes. Future research should seek to uncover unique risk profiles of sub-ethnic groups in the African diaspora.