Late 19th, early 20th century US, foreign-born body mass index values in the United States

Little work exists that compares the BMIs of 19th century foreign-born and US-born natives. Russian, Italian, German, and French BMIs were 5.1, 3.9, 2.9, and 1.8 percent higher than that of North Americans; Asians were nearly 4.2 percent lower. African-Americans and multiracial/multiethnic individual BMIs were 4.9 and 3.8 percent greater than fairer complexioned whites, indicating there was no multiracial/multiethnic BMI advantage. Farm laborers and ranchers had BMIs that were 2.9 percent and 2.2 percent greater, respectively, than that of workers with no occupations. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.