title: What women want: understanding obesity and preferences for primary care weight reduction interventions among African-American and Caucasian women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore attitudes and perceptions of obesity, and identify preferences for weight-management interventions by African-American and Caucasian women who were followed in general internal medicine clinics.
  
  
  METHODS
  Surveys exploring these issues were mailed to African-American (n=240) and Caucasian (n=240) women with a BMI of > or =30.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Caucasian women felt past weight-loss efforts were helped by weight-loss programs significantly more than African-American women (P<0.001); African-American women were more likely to feel that their cultural background contributed to their weight gain than did Caucasian women (P=0.001). African-American women expressed a higher need for one-on-one counseling with their physician (P<0.001) as well as group meetings with the dietician, physician and other women (P=0.004) than did Caucasian women. African-American women also felt it was more important for weight-loss programs to have information on food common to their culture than did Caucasian women (P<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Differences in cultural background and preferences about weight loss interventions have important policy implications for how the U.S. healthcare system provides care to an ever-increasing multicultural population with a national epidemic such as obesity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, USA. blixenc@ccf.org
authors.forename: Carol E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Blixen
authors.forename: Anisha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Holly
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Thacker
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mascha
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D011320:Primary Health Care; D015431:Weight Loss; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*; D016387:Women's Health