Abstract
Low physical activity (PA), high sedentary behavior (SB), and overweight and obesity have been shown to associate with increased Type 2 diabetes risk among adolescents. We investigated PA, SB, and overweight and obesity among Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) respondents to determine if non-heterosexual youth may be at increased diabetes risk compared to heterosexual youth. Weighted city and state YRBS data were pooled across 44 jurisdictions biennially from 2009 to 2015, resulting in a sample size of 350 673 students. Overall, 88.4% identified as heterosexual, 2.1% as gay or lesbian, 5.7% as bisexual, and 3.7% as unsure. With the exception of lesbian female students, after adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, body mass index, and survey year, all non-heterosexual youth reported significantly fewer days per week of PA compared to their sex-matched heterosexual counterparts. Similarly, compared to heterosexual female youth, bisexual and not sure female youth reported significantly more hours per day of SB. These PA and SB findings remained significant after adjustment for depressive symptoms and in-school bullying among bisexual female youth only. In fully adjusted models, lesbian students were 1.85 times more likely to be overweight and lesbian, bisexual, and not sure female youth were 1.55 to 2.07 times more likely to be obese than heterosexual female students. No significant differences in SB, overweight, or obesity were found among gay, bisexual, or unsure male youth compared to heterosexual male youth. Non-heterosexual youth may be at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus compared to heterosexual youth. Future studies should characterize diabetes prevalence among non-heterosexual youth.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1137-1146 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Pediatric Diabetes |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2018 |
Funding
LBB conceptualized the study and served as primary drafter of the article. BT performed all statistical analyses. DF, RM, and GLP assisted in writing and editing the article. LBB takes responsibility for the contents of the article. The authors acknowledge Dr. Ronald Ackermann for helpful feedback on the conceptualization of the article. This work was supported by National Institutes of Health R01AA024409 awarded to GLP from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. LBB is supported by a Health Disparities Loan Repayment Award from the National Institutes of Health awarded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities L60 MD011099. The authors declare no conflict of interest. This work was in part submitted in abstract form to the American Diabetes Association’s 2018 Annual Meeting. information National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Grant/Award Number: R01AA024409; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Grant/Award Number: L60 MD011099.LBB conceptualized the study and served as primary drafter of the article. BT performed all statistical analyses. DF, RM, and GLP assisted in writing and editing the article. LBB takes responsibility for the contents of the article. The authors acknowledge Dr. Ronald Ackermann for helpful feedback on the conceptualization of the article. This work was supported by National Institutes of Health R01AA024409 awarded to GLP from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. LBB is supported by a Health Disparities Loan Repayment Award from the National Institutes of Health awarded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities L60 MD011099. The authors declare no conflict of interest. This work was in part submitted in abstract form to the American Diabetes Association's 2018 Annual Meeting.
Keywords
- adolescent
- epidemiology
- exercise
- obesity
- sexual minority
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Internal Medicine
- Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
- Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
