Despite similar levels of physical activity, white women appear to have a greater reduction in their risk of developing diabetes than women of other races.

The latest findings of the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study were announced here Sunday at the American Heart Association’s meeting.

Dr. Judith Hsia of George Washington University in Washington, DC, explained that among the nearly 100,000 postmenopausal women participating in the study, 74,240 were white, 6465 were African American, 3231 Hispanic, 2445 Asian and 327 American Indian women.

During follow-up, diabetes was reported by 2.2 percent of white women, 6.2 percent of African American, 4.5 percent of Hispanic, 3 percent of Asian and 5.7 percent of American Indian women. Because of the small numbers, Hsia’s team did not include the American Indian women in their analysis.

For white women, exercise “demonstrated a strong inverse relationship with diabetes risk,” but Hsia said that link did not hold true for the other ethnic groups.

She speculated that the differences between the ethnic groups could be due to genetic influences, but she stressed that “this does not mean to imply that exercise is of no benefit to minorities.”

Hsia noted that before adjusting for other risk factors - such as cholesterol, education, smoking and alcohol consumption - physically active African American and Hispanic women were less likely to develop diabetes than their more inactive counterparts.

“We need randomized controlled trial data to make any conclusions” about these findings, she said.