Weight perception is black and white - and gray
Mon 01 May 2006 01:21 AM CST
WASHINGTON DC (myDNA News)
The definitions of obesity and overweight may vary from culture to culture and from doctor to doctor, according to a paper in the Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Maryanne Davidson, M.S.N., a registered nurse and doctoral student at Yale University School of Nursing, found that many women do not associate high weight with potential health problems. In addition, women base their opinions of weight on cultural ideas, with different definitions of "overweight" and "obese."
Davidson reviewed 20 papers from 18 studies that were published over a 10-year period. She used dimensional analysis to examine the concept of obesity and different attitudes towards obesity and weight in each group, which consisted of white and African-American women and health care providers. Views of some men were used, but only as it pertained to the weight of women.
The review showed that African-Americans regarded obesity and overweight status more positively, relating extra weight with attractiveness, sexual desirability, strength, goodness, self-esteem and social acceptability.
White Americans had a completely different response. They perceived obesity as unattractive, not socially desirable, socially unacceptable and leading to negative body image and low self-esteem.
But white Americans had mixed views about the links between health and weight. Some said they were concerned, while others said weight was not a health issue.
"Findings of this study point to the lack of association between weight and health for many women — black and white," Davidson said. "So, while health care providers are using the terms overweight and obese and BMI, those terms may be vastly different in meaning for the women who fall into these categories.
"This disconnect raises the concern that many providers — and researchers — may assume these terms are understood by patients to mean their health is adversely affected because of the size of their habitus." Habitus are characteristics that are related to the development a disease. For example, obesity and high blood pressure are habitus of diabetes.
The health care professionals also differed in their views of obesity and weight. Davidson found that most health care providers use the body mass index (BMI) as a measurement tool, but they used different levels to define normal weight, overweight and obesity.
Davidson said the International Obesity Task Force is pushing for a global standardized measurement for being obese and overweight based on BMI.
"There is so much focus on body size, using terms that have different meanings for different people," she said. "Greater research is needed in these and other populations if interventions are going to be developed that are meaningful to those at risk for morbidities related to body size."
Approximately 300 million people are obese worldwide, and 1 billion are overweight, according to the World Health Organization. Obesity can be a risk factor for many health issues including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and some cancers.
"I believe that these results mean that body size and weight for women — men and children, too — need to be understood in terms of health," Davidson said. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but health and beauty do not always go hand and hand."
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