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Without checking Ms Dickerson's sources, I'm assuming this statistic is based on BMI (body mass index). Although this measure is commonly used to define healthy weight ranges for adults (BMI between 18 and 25), the usefulness of this measure is still controversial in public health debates.
Although the single range is used, it's also known that health risks may vary by race. For Asians a healthy BMI is lower than 25, while for Blacks a healthy BMI may be as high as 27. The science to justify this variability is that body composition (specifically bone density and percentage of lean muscle tissue) varies by race. The BMI was developed as a measure only for non-pregnant adults aged 18-65, though it is currently used for may different populations and I haven't kept up with how valid that is. I know it not a valid measure for pregnant women or very althletic people. A recent paper suggested that a waist-to-height ratio of 0.5 or higher is a better predictor of cardiovascular health risks.
Back to my main point, if BMI is the measure being used to categorize African-American women as "overweight" it may actually be over-counting the number of women who are at higher health risks because of their weight; the 78% may actually be much lower if race-appropriate ranges were used.
