Descriptive characteristics by racial/ethnic groups are presented in Table 1 . Japanese-American women were older at blood draw (mean age = 68.8 years), whereas Latinas and Native Hawaiians were slightly younger (65.5 and 65.8 years, respectively). Body size characteristics (weight, height, and BMI) differed significantly across ethnic groups (P < 0.001). African Americans were the heaviest as a group, and despite their greater average height, they had the highest mean BMI (28.8 kg/m2). The mean BMI of Native Hawaiians and Latinas were lower at 28.2 and 28.0 kg/m2, respectively, but greater than Whites (26.5 kg/m2). Japanese Americans weighed much less than any other group, and despite the fact that they were shorter on average than any other group, their mean BMI was only 23.2 kg/m2. Among parous women, Latinas and Native Hawaiians had the most children, whereas Japanese had the fewest. Latinas and Native Hawaiians reported the highest average calorie intake. Overall, Japanese Americans had the lowest proportion of calories from fat, whereas African Americans had the highest. Whites (14%) were more likely to have late age at first birth than other groups (4-8%). Compared with other ethnic groups, Japanese Americans were more likely to have later age at menopause. African Americans were more likely to have undergone simple hysterectomy (21%) and bilateral oophorectomy (16%) compared with other groups. White women consumed alcohol to a greater extent than the other groups, with 17% consuming at least one drink per day. The corresponding figure for African Americans and Latinas was around 7%; this decreased to 5% for Latinas and to 2% for Japanese Americans. The highest proportion of current smokers was among African Americans (21%), and the lowest was among Japanese Americans (9%). The distribution of descriptive factors in this sample were consistent with that observed in the entire female cohort (7, 16).
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