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Comparability of nutrition study volunteers to participants of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
Author(s) -
Faherty Meghan,
Dupiton Kimberly,
Flanagan William,
Saltzman Edward
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.273.1
Subject(s) - behavioral risk factor surveillance system , medicine , underweight , overweight , demography , demographics , population , behavioral risk , gerontology , ethnically diverse , obesity , environmental health , sociology
We assessed if adults recruited for studies at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) were comparable to the general population from which they were recruited, as represented by the Massachusetts responders of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Most HNRCA participants (75%) resided in the greater Boston area. As such participants recruited for HNRCA studies between 2006‐2011 (n=4,387) were compared to 2011 BRFSS responders from the greater Boston area (n=10,908) by demographics, BMI classification, and lifestyle factors. HNRCA had a higher proportion of African American participants and lower proportions of Caucasian and Hispanic participants compared to BRFSS responders (GB sample) (χ 2 (8, N = 15,085)=3685.41, p<0.0001). HNRCA also differed in BMI classification with a larger percentage of underweight participants and lower percentages of normal weight and obese participants compared to the GB sample (χ 2 (24, N = 14,236)=1620.26, p<0.0001). HNRCA participants had a lower average BMI compared to the GB sample, but was not statistically significant (F=0.30, p=0.85). HNRCA participants and BRFSS responders showed a race by BMI classification interaction (χ 2 (24, N = 14,236)=1620.26, p<0.0001) with African Americans having the highest proportions in overweight and obese classifications and Asians with the lowest. Results suggest HNRCA recruiting practices generally resulted in recruitment of minorities in proportion to the GB area, and BMI patterns among races reflected those in the GB area and nationally. HNRCA study criteria may have biased selection of participants with lower BMI as obesity and its related comorbidities may have been exclusions. Support: USDA ARS Cooperative Agreement No 58‐1950‐7‐707