IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.2007.114025_9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Disentangling the effects of racial and weight discrimination on body mass index and obesity among Asian Americans

Author

Listed:
  • Gee, G.C.
  • Ro, A.
  • Gavin, A.
  • Takeuchi, D.T.

Abstract

Objectives. We examined whether racial discrimination is associated with increased body mass index (BMI) and obesity among Asian Americans. Further, we explored whether this association strengthens with increasing time in the United States. Methods. We analyzed data from the 2002 to 2003 National Latino and Asian American Study (n = 1956). Regression models tested whether reports of racial discrimination were associated with BMI and obesity, after accounting for weight discrimination, age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, generation, employment, health status, and social desirability bias (the tendency to seek approval by providing the most socially desirable response to a question). Results. We found that (1) racial discrimination was associated with increased BMI and obesity after we controlled for weight discrimination, social desirability bias, and other factors and (2) the association between racial discrimination and BMI strengthened with increasing time in the United States. Conclusions. Racial discrimination may be an important factor related to weight gain among ethnic minorities.

Suggested Citation

  • Gee, G.C. & Ro, A. & Gavin, A. & Takeuchi, D.T., 2008. "Disentangling the effects of racial and weight discrimination on body mass index and obesity among Asian Americans," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 98(3), pages 493-500.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2007.114025_9
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.114025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2007.114025
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.2007.114025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Harris, Ricci & Cormack, Donna & Tobias, Martin & Yeh, Li-Chia & Talamaivao, Natalie & Minster, Joanna & Timutimu, Roimata, 2012. "The pervasive effects of racism: Experiences of racial discrimination in New Zealand over time and associations with multiple health domains," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 408-415.
    2. Harker, Debra & Sharma, Bishnu & Harker, Michael & Reinhard, Karin, 2010. "Leaving home: Food choice behavior of young German adults," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 111-115, February.
    3. Harnois, Catherine E. & Bastos, João L. & Campbell, Mary E. & Keith, Verna M., 2019. "Measuring perceived mistreatment across diverse social groups: An evaluation of the Everyday Discrimination Scale," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 298-306.
    4. Nathalia A. B. Souza & Karina A. Rimes-Dias & Janaina C. Costa & Daniela S. Canella, 2022. "Weight Gain and Change in Body Mass Index after Age 20 in the Brazilian Population and Associated Sociodemographic Factors: Data from the National Health Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-14, March.
    5. Feng, Xiaoqi & Wilson, Andrew, 2022. "Association between community average body mass index and perception of overweight," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    6. Chen, Shanting & Mallory, Allen B., 2021. "The effect of racial discrimination on mental and physical health: A propensity score weighting approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 285(C).
    7. Brewis, Alexandra A., 2014. "Stigma and the perpetuation of obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 152-158.
    8. Bridget K. Gorman & Cynthia Novoa & Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, 2016. "Migration Decisions, Acculturation, and Overweight among Asian and Latino Immigrant Adults in the United States," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 728-757, September.
    9. Viruell-Fuentes, Edna A. & Miranda, Patricia Y. & Abdulrahim, Sawsan, 2012. "More than culture: Structural racism, intersectionality theory, and immigrant health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2099-2106.
    10. Ro, Annie & Bostean, Georgiana, 2015. "Duration of U.S. stay and body mass index among Latino and Asian immigrants: A test of theoretical pathways," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 39-47.
    11. Santosh Jatrana & Ken Richardson & Samba Siva Rao Pasupuleti, 2018. "The Effect of Nativity, Duration of Residence, and Age at Arrival on Obesity: Evidence from an Australian Longitudinal Study," VID Working Papers 1811, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
    12. Yoo, Hyung Chol & Gee, Gilbert C. & Takeuchi, David, 2009. "Discrimination and health among Asian American immigrants: Disentangling racial from language discrimination," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 726-732, February.
    13. Cunningham, Timothy J. & Seeman, Teresa E. & Kawachi, Ichiro & Gortmaker, Steven L. & Jacobs, David R. & Kiefe, Catarina I. & Berkman, Lisa F., 2012. "Racial/ethnic and gender differences in the association between self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination and inflammation in the CARDIA cohort of 4 US communities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 922-931.
    14. Reza Nakhaie & Rochelle Wijesingha, 2015. "Discrimination and Health of Male and Female Canadian Immigrant," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 1255-1272, November.
    15. Nancy Krieger & Pamela D Waterman & Anna Kosheleva & Jarvis T Chen & Dana R Carney & Kevin W Smith & Gary G Bennett & David R Williams & Elmer Freeman & Beverley Russell & Gisele Thornhill & Kristin M, 2011. "Exposing Racial Discrimination: Implicit & Explicit Measures–The My Body, My Story Study of 1005 US-Born Black & White Community Health Center Members," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(11), pages 1-24, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2007.114025_9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.