This report sought to compare the association between obesity and cardiometabolic risk factors in African-Americans and Whites. For that purpose, participants in the Jackson Heart Study (JHS) and in the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) were evaluated. A total of 4,030 JHS (mean age 54 years, 64% women) and 5,245 FHS (mean age 51 years, 54% women) participants were included in the analyses. A higher prevalence of obesity and overweight was observed among African-American participants compared to Whites. There was also a higher prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia at all levels of adiposity in African-Americans compared to Whites. However, the slopes of the relationships between body mass index (BMI) and most cardiometabolic risk factors were much steeper in Whites than in African-Americans. The observation that cardiometabolic risk factors are less associated with BMI in African-Americans compared to Whites suggests that other factors contribute to the high prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors in African-Americans.
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