Women's beliefs about what causes obesity: variation by race/ethnicity and acculturation in a Washington State sample.

Publisher: Informa Healthcare Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 9608374 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1465-3419 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 13557858 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Ethn Health Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: London : Informa Healthcare
Original Publication: Abingdon, Oxfordshire ; Cambridge, MA : Carfax, c1996-

Acculturation* ; Culture* ; Diet*; Ethnicity/*statistics & numerical data ; Hispanic or Latino/*statistics & numerical data ; Obesity/*etiology; Adult ; Exercise/physiology ; Female ; Humans ; Longitudinal Studies ; Middle Aged ; Obesity/genetics ; Self Report ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Washington

Objective: Individuals' beliefs about the causes of multifactorial health conditions (causal attributions) shape how they conceptualize and respond to health threats and are therefore important for health promotion. Studies of racial/ethnic and cultural variation in obesity causal beliefs, however, are scarce. To address this gap, this study described beliefs about the underlying causes of obesity (genetic inheritance, diet, and physical activity) in Hispanic and non-Hispanic White women participating in a longitudinal cohort study in South King County, Washington State ( n  = 1,002). Design: Analysis of baseline survey data. Self-reported obesity causal beliefs were compared by race/ethnicity and acculturation indicators (survey language and nativity) using marginal effect estimates generated from multinomial logistic regression models. Results: Hispanic women had a higher probability of not believing 'at all' in inheritance and physical activity as causes of obesity - an absolute increase of 33% and 5% over non-Hispanic White women, respectively. Both acculturation indicators were also associated with a higher probability of not believing 'at all' in inheritance as a cause of obesity, though Hispanic women who completed the survey in English and were born in the United States had genetic causal beliefs similar to non-Hispanic White women. Behavioral attributions did not vary by acculturation indicators in Hispanic women. Conclusions: Differences in obesity casual beliefs, particularly genetic attributions, exist and may be important for developing and delivering effective obesity-related health promotion interventions. Identifying the determinants and public health consequences of cultural variation in obesity attributions should be the focus of future research.

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R01 DK079042 United States DK NIDDK NIH HHS

Keywords: Hispanic; USA; acculturation; genetic attributions; health promotion; obesity causal beliefs

Date Created: 20171216 Date Completed: 20210715 Latest Revision: 20211204

20240628

PMC6125226

10.1080/13557858.2017.1414156

29243503