Krauss Ramona C, Powell Lisa M, Wada Roy
Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
J Obes. 2012;2012:205393. doi: 10.1155/2012/205393. Epub 2012 May 31.
This paper investigated weight misperceptions as determinants of racial/ethnic disparities in body mass index (BMI) among adolescent females using data from the National Survey of Youth 1997. Compared to their white counterparts, higher proportions of black and Hispanic adolescent females underperceived their weight status; that is, they misperceived themselves to have lower weight status compared to their clinically defined weight status. Compared to their black counterparts, higher proportions of white and Hispanic adolescent females misperceived themselves to be heavier than their clinical weight status. Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition analysis showed that accounting for weight misperceptions, in addition to individual and contextual factors, increased the total explained portion of the black-white female BMI gap from 44.7% to 54.3% but only slightly increased the total explained portion of the Hispanic-white gap from 62.8% to 63.1%. Weight misperceptions explained 13.0% of the black-white female BMI gap and 3.3% of the Hispanic-white female BMI gap. The regression estimates showed that weight underperceptions were important determinants of adolescent female BMI, particularly among black and Hispanic adolescents. Education regarding identification and interpretation of weight status may play an important role to help reduce the incidence and racial disparity of female adolescent obesity.
本文利用1997年全国青年调查的数据，研究了体重误判作为青少年女性体重指数（BMI）种族/族裔差异决定因素的情况。与白人青少年女性相比，更高比例的黑人与西班牙裔青少年女性低估了自己的体重状况；也就是说，与她们临床定义的体重状况相比，她们误判自己的体重更低。与黑人青少年女性相比，更高比例的白人与西班牙裔青少年女性误判自己比临床体重状况更重。瓦哈卡-布林德分解分析表明，除了个人和环境因素外，考虑体重误判后，黑人与白人女性BMI差距的总解释比例从44.7%提高到了54.3%，但西班牙裔与白人差距的总解释比例仅从62.8%略微提高到了63.1%。体重误判解释了黑人与白人女性BMI差距的13.0%以及西班牙裔与白人女性BMI差距的3.3%。回归估计表明，体重低估是青少年女性BMI的重要决定因素，尤其是在黑人和西班牙裔青少年中。关于体重状况识别和解读的教育可能在帮助降低女性青少年肥胖的发生率和种族差异方面发挥重要作用。
