Objectives To estimate the percentage of excess death for US Black and White men and women associated with high body mass, we examined the combined effects of age variation in the obesity–mortality relationship and cohort variation in age-specific obesity prevalence. Methods We examined 19 National Health Interview Survey waves linked to individual National Death Index mortality records, 1986–2006, for age and cohort patterns in the population-level association between obesity and US adult mortality. Results The estimated percentage of adult deaths between 1986 and 2006 associated with overweight and obesity was 5.0% and 15.6% for Black and White men, and 26.8% and 21.7% for Black and White women, respectively. We found a substantially stronger association than previous research between obesity and mortality risk at older ages, and an increasing percentage of mortality attributable to obesity across birth cohorts. Conclusions Previous research has likely underestimated obesity's impact on US mortality. Methods attentive to cohort variation in obesity prevalence and age variation in obesity's effect on mortality risk suggest that obesity significantly shapes US mortality levels, placing it at the forefront of concern for public health action.

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Previous research suggests Hispanic vaccination rates for H1N1 were similar to non-Hispanic whites. These previous estimates do not take into account nativity status. Using the 2010 National Health Interview Survey, we estimate adult H1N1 vaccination rates for non-Hispanic whites (n = 8780), U.S.-born Hispanics (n = 1142), and foreign-born Hispanics (n = 1912). To test Fundamental Cause Theory, we estimate odds of H1N1 vaccination while controlling for flexible resources (e.g., educational and economic capital), ethnicity, and nativity status. Foreign-born Hispanics experienced the lowest rates of H1N1 vaccination (15%), followed by U.S.-born Hispanics (18%) and non-Hispanic whites (21%). Regression models show odds of H1N1 vaccination did not differ among these three groups after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. Insufficient access to flexible resources and healthcare coverage among foreign-born Hispanics was responsible for relatively low rates of H1N1 vaccination. Addressing resource disparities among Hispanics could increase vaccination uptake in the future, reducing inequities in disease burden.

SUMMARY Short sleep duration is associated with excess body mass among adolescents and young adults. The mechanisms theorized to drive that association suggest that persistent exposure to short sleep should be associated with greater accumulations of body mass. We use prospective cohort data from four waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (1994–2009; N=14,800) to examine associations between cumulative exposure to short sleep throughout adolescence and early adulthood, and obesity and elevated waist circumference outcomes. We compare several clinical and distribution-based standards of short sleep to assess which measures are most strongly associated with body mass. Cumulative exposure to short sleep exhibits dose-response associations with obesity and elevated waist circumference. Relative to respondents with no instances of short sleep, those who slept −0.50 standard deviations or less than the age and sex-specific average sleep hours in all four waves had 1.45 (95% CI=1.03, 2.04) times the odds of being obese and 1.45 (95% CI=1.02, 2.06) times the odds of having an elevated waist circumference. Our findings suggest that cumulative exposure to short sleep during adolescence and young adulthood may play an important role in the development of obesity and elevated waist circumference during this important developmental period.

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