Measuring Distributional Inequality: Relative Body Mass Index Distributions by Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Education, United States (1999–2006)

Table 2

Summary measures for distributional comparisons for men, by race, education, and race-education subgroups, United States (1999–2006).

		Polarization Index
	Entropy	Median	95% CI	Lower	95% CI	Upper	95% CI
By Race	.023	.087	.055, .120	.067	.003,  .132	.107	.043,  .171
By Edu
Less high school	.046	.150	.108,  .193	.199	.115,  .282	.102	.017, .187
High School	.035	.110	.069,  .151	.153	.072,  .234	.068	−.014,  .149
Some College	.029	.087	.047,  .127	.171	.091,  .250	.003	−.078,  .084
By race-edu
Less high school	.036	.059	−.002,  .120	.042	−.079,  .162	.077	−.047,  .120
High School	.022	.066	.001,  .131	.095	−.034,  .223	.038	−.092,  .168
Some College	.019	.066	.005,  .128	.028	−.096,  .152	.105	−.018,  .227
College or greater	.035	.079	−.002,  .160	.091	−.072,  .253	.066	−.095,  .228
Within race by edu
NH Whites
Less high school	.039	.137	.085,  .189	.177	.073,  .280	.098	−.007,  .202
High School	.038	.110	.064,  .155	.150	.059,  .241	.069	−.023,  .161
Some College	.032	.086	.040,  .132	.173	.083,  .262	.000	−.092,  .092
NH Blacks
Less high school	.176	.108	.023,  .194	.037	−.138,  .212	.179	.015,  .343
High School	.096	.067	−.024,  .158	.056	−.128,  .241	.077	−.102,  .256
Some College	.102	.041	−.048,  .129	−.011	−.192,  .169	.093	−.081,  .266

Abbreviations: Edu = education; NH = non-Hispanic; CI = confidence interval.
Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.