What women want: understanding obesity and preferences for primary care weight reduction interventions among African-American and Caucasian women.
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.
Blixen
Carol E
CE
Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, USA. blixenc@ccf.org
Singh
Anisha
A
Xu
Meng
M
Thacker
Holly
H
Mascha
Edward
E
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