title: Women's work. Maintaining a healthy body weight.
abstract: This study describes women's perceptions of the supports and barriers to maintaining a healthy weight among currently healthy weight women from urban and rural socio-economically disadvantaged areas. Using focus groups and interviews, we asked women about their experiences of maintaining a healthy weight. Overwhelmingly, women described their healthy weight practices in terms of concepts related to work and management. The theme of 'managing health' comprised issues of managing multiple responsibilities, time, and emotions associated with healthy practices. Rural women faced particular difficulties in accessing supports at a practical level (for example, lack of childcare) and due to the gendered roles they enacted in caring for others. Family background (in particular, mothers' attitudes to food and weight) also appeared to influence perceptions about healthy weight maintenance. In the context of global increases in the prevalence of obesity, the value of initiatives aimed at supporting healthy weight women to maintain their weight should not be under-estimated. Such initiatives need to work within the social and personal constraints that women face in maintaining good health.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, 3125, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Nicky
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Welch
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.forename: Karina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Butera
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Willis
authors.forename: Verity
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cleland
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.forename: Kylie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ball
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001835:Body Weight; D002654:Child Care; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004032:Diet; D004522:Educational Status; D004644:Emotions; D015444:Exercise; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008875:Middle Aged; D012424:Rural Population; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D018454:Spouses; D014505:Urban Population; D016387:Women's Health