A quantile approach to the demographic, residential, and socioeconomic effects on 19th-century African-American body mass index values.

Little research exists on the body mass index values of late 19th- and early 20th-century African-Americans. Using a new BMI data set and robust statistics, this paper demonstrates that darker complexioned black BMIs were greater than for mulattos, and a mulatto BMI advantage did not exist. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, black BMIs decreased across the BMI distribution, indicating that the 20th-century increase in black BMIs did not have its origin in the 19th century. During industrialization, black BMIs were lower in Kentucky, Missouri, and urban Philadelphia. Late 19th- and early 20th-century black BMIs were related to occupations, and farmers had heavier BMIs than workers in other occupations.