U-M study: Pacific Islanders have high obesity, smoking rates

ANN ARBOR, Mich.-In the first study to detail the health of Pacific Islanders living in the United States, University of Michigan researchers have found alarmingly high rates of obesity and smoking. The preliminary findings are being presented today (Sept. 24) at a conference in Los Angeles on health disparities among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. "Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are the second fastest growing minority population in the U.S.," said Sela Panapasa, a researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research and principal investigator of the Pacific Islander Health Study. "But they are often underrepresented in national surveys. "This is the first scientific study to assess the health, well-being and health care use of two subgroups of this important population-Samoans and Tongans. Our hope is that this will lead to the development of evidence-based interventions and policies to improve the health of these groups, and also serve as a model for similar studies of other subgroups of this population." For the study, the research team ed a random sample of 239 California households in 2011 and 2012.