title: An ecological framework for sexual minority women's health: factors associated with greater body mass.
abstract: In recent years, many studies have focused on the body of sexual minority women, particularly emphasizing their larger size. These studies rarely offer theoretically based explanations for the increased weight, nor study the potential consequences (or lack thereof) of being heavier. This article provides a brief overview of the multitude of factors that might cause or contribute to larger size of sexual minority women, using an ecological framework that elucidates upstream social determinants of health as well as individual risk factors. This model is infused with a minority stress model, which hypothesizes excess strain resulting from the stigma associated with oppressed minority identities such as woman, lesbian, bisexual, woman of color, and others. We argue that lack of attention to the upstream social determinants of health may result in individual-level victim blaming and interventions that do not address the root causes of minority stress or increased weight.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health Education , San Francisco State University , San Francisco , California , USA.
authors.forename: Michele J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Eliason
authors.forename: Sarah C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Fogel
mesh_terms: D001727:Bisexuality; D044383:Black People; D015992:Body Mass Index; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D018452:Homosexuality, Female; D006801:Humans; D008913:Minority Groups; D009765:Obesity / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D064890:Social Determinants of Health; D057545:Social Stigma; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications
keywords: bisexual; health disparities; lesbian; minority stress; sexual minority women