Authors combined 2007-2016 waves of the adult California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) to analyze a nonobese (BMI<30) sample of 2,295 Japanese Americans and 119,651 Non-Hispanic whites (NHW).

Findings:

• This representative community study of nonobese Californians indicates that the prevalence of diabetes among Japanese-American respondents was higher than their NHW counterparts, 8.0% versus 4.5%.
• Prevalence increased markedly with age; one-quarter of nonobese Japanese Americans aged 80 and older had diabetes.

The prevalence of diabetes among nonobese Japanese Americans is significantly higher than that among NHWs. There is an urgent need to develop appropriate intervention and prevention approaches with lifestyle modification specifically targeted towards nonobese Japanese Americans.