Values and Beliefs About Obesity and Weight Reduction Among African American and Caucasian Women

Abstract

Designing culturally relevant weight-reduction programs requires understanding of ethnic variations and illness beliefs. Preliminary data on the values and beliefs about obesity and weight reduction were obtained from women of different ethnic/racial backgrounds. Purposive sampling was used to recruit African American (AA) and Caucasian (C) women with a body mass index (BMI)>or= 30 from the general internal medicine clinics of a large tertiary care facility. Four focus groups (2 with AA women and 2 with C women) consisting of a total of 20 subjects were conducted in a 2-month period. AA women cited culture specific barriers to weight loss more so than did C women. AA women and C women also differed on how health care professionals could help them with weight loss. These findings have implications for nursing's role in the design of culturally relevant weight-loss programs.

Perceptions relating to body size, weight loss and weight-loss interventions in black South African women: a qualitative study

“…Participants' comments regarding body size are consistent with the findings of other SA studies (4,7) which have suggested that black SA women prefer a larger body size. Similar findings are evident in other cultures such as Samoan populations of the Pacific Islands (31) , the women of Saudi Arabia (32) , women of Caribbean descent living in the UK (33) and African-American women in the USA (34)(35)(36) . The findings of previous studies suggest that many women of African descent view obesity not only as attractive but also as a sign of wealth and affluence (7,12,16,20) .…”

Avoiding the term ‘obesity’: An experimental study of the impact of doctors’ language on patients’ beliefs

“…Research indicates that obesity is a highly stigmatised problem [10] associated with blame and personal responsibility [11]. A study by Blixen et al [12] also found that the word 'obese' was considered to be 'vulgar' and connotative of unattractiveness. This suggests that doctors may choose to avoid the medical term for fear of upsetting patients with its negative associations.…”

Explanations for Unsuccessful Weight Loss Among Bariatric Surgery Candidates

“…In focus groups, obese African-American women cited ethnic and cultural norms, influence of close family members, food cravings, as well as lack of time, resources, self-control, and social support [11,14], obese Caucasian women reported depression and lack of commitment to diet [11], and overweight men discussed inadequate motivation and negative perception of dieting [12]. In a national survey of US adults, barriers to weight loss included inadequate energy (65%), will power (56%), time (44%), and social support (38%) for exercise, as well as high cost of healthy food (49%), preference for junk food (48%), and eating out (40%) [13].…”

“…We identified categories a priori from studies describing subjective explanations for obesity [7,[10][11][12][13][14], as well as from our clinical experience. We identified additional relevant categories by reviewing three sets of randomly selected responses consisting of 5%, 10%, and 15% of the total sample, respectively.…”

“…Studies in other populations have explored subjective explanations for unsuccessful weight loss [7,[10][11][12][13][14], but the topic has not been formally addressed among individuals seeking bariatric surgery. We utilized a combined qualitative and quantitative approach to analyze subjective explanations for unsuccessful weight loss among seekers of bariatric surgery.…”