title: The association of body mass index and externally perceived attractiveness across race/ethnicity, gender, and time.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Being perceived by others as unattractive is associated with negative health and social consequences. Overweight individuals may be more likely to be perceived by others as unattractive, thereby further endangering their well-being. Our objective was to determine whether body mass index (BMI) was associated with perceptions by others regarding attractiveness and whether this relationship was similar across race/ethnicity, gender, and time.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed Waves I and III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative longitudinal study of adolescents. We used participant gender- and race/ethnicity-stratified multinomial logistic regression to examine the association between BMI and interviewer-rated attractiveness (1 = unattractive, 2 = average, 3 = attractive, 4 = very attractive) controlling for participant age, household income, and maternal education.
  
  
  RESULTS
  BMI was positively associated with risk of being categorized as unattractive (relative to very attractive) by the interviewer in black (Wave I: relative risk ratio [RRR] = 1.26, CI: 1.18, 1.33; Wave III: RRR = 1.14, CI: 1.08, 1.20), Hispanic (Wave I: RRR = 1.23, CI: 1.11, 1.36; Wave III: RRR = 1.22, CI: 1.12, 1.34), and white (Wave I: RRR = 1.25, CI: 1.19, 1.32; Wave III: RRR = 1.22, CI: 1.17, 1.28) females in both waves of data collection. Only in African American females, the risk of being rated unattractive with increasing BMI declined significantly between waves (p = .00018). Trends were similar in males, although the magnitude of risk was smaller and nonsignificant in most groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Interviewers were more likely to rate those with higher BMIs as unattractive; this finding was similar across gender and racial/ethnic groups with few exceptions and was stable across time.
authors.affiliation: Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. tracy.richmond@childrens.Harvard.edu
authors.forename: Tracy K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Richmond
authors.forename: S Bryn
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Austin
authors.forename: Courtney E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Walls
authors.forename: S V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Subramanian
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D001828:Body Image; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D012928:Social Desirability; D014481:United States; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult