title: Racial differences in obese youth's perception of health care and weight loss.
abstract: Within the United States, minority youth are at greater risk of becoming overweight/obese and are less likely to receive preventive health care. The authors examined several domains of preventive health care perceptions among persistently overweight/obese white and black adolescents. A total of 55 youth (29 white, 26 black) who had previously sought weight management treatment participated in a follow-up study 4 years later (M (years) = 4.2 ± 0.8). All participants remained overweight (5% at the 85th- 94th BMI percentiles) or obese (95% ≥ 95th BMI percentile), with no significant difference in weight by race. Relative to whites, blacks perceived greater physician concern about and counseling regarding weight (P (concern) < .01; P (counsel) < .01), eating habits(P (concern) < .001; P (counsel) < .01), and physical activity (P (concern) < .001; P (counsel) < .05). Although whites reported knowing more weight-related comorbidities than blacks, there were no group differences in number of weight loss methods attempted (M (methods) = 7.5 ± 2.7). Overall, there were no group differences in perceptions of risk. Physicians may be appropriately focusing efforts on educating black youth, but knowledge and behavior gaps persist.
authors: Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA. megan.ratcliff@cchmc.org
authors: Megan Benoit
authors: MB
authors: Ratcliff
authors: Chanelle T
authors: CT
authors: Bishop-Gilyard
authors: Jennifer
authors: J
authors: Reiter-Purtill
authors: Meg H
authors: MH
authors: Zeller
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D003376:Counseling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D015431:Weight Loss; D044465:White People / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology