BMI Cut Points to Identify At-Risk Asian Americans for Type 2 Diabetes Screening

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an Asian is a person with origins fromthe Far East (China, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia), Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Laos, etc.), or the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal); each region has several ethnicities, each with a unique culture, language, and history. In 2011, 18.2 million U.S. residents self-identified as Asian American, with more than two-thirds foreign-born (1). In 2012, Asian Americans were the nation's fastestgrowing racial or ethnic group, with a growth rate over four times that of the total U.S. population. International migration has contributed >60% of the growth rate in this population (1). Among Asian Americans, the Chinese population was thelargest (4.0 million), followed by Filipinos (3.4 million), Asian Indians (3.2 million), Vietnamese (1.9 million), Koreans (1.7 million), and Japanese (1.3 million). Nearly three-fourths of all Asian Americans live in 10 statesdCalifornia, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Hawaii, Illinois,Washington, Florida, Virginia, and Pennsylvania (1). By 2060, the Asian American population is projected to more than double to 34.4 million, with its share of the U.S. population climbing from 5.1 to 8.2% in the same period (2). © 2015 by the American Diabetes Association.