Department of Social Science and Policy Studies.
Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles.
Health Psychol. 2019 Mar;38(3):226-237. doi: 10.1037/hea0000711.
Weight stigma adversely affects the health of the general population, but almost no studies have examined possible negative consequences of weight stigma in the context of pregnancy. The present study tested whether experiencing weight stigma in pregnancy is inversely related to mental and physical health in mothers during the first postpartum year.
This study examined associations between weight-related experiences of discrimination in everyday life, measured at 1 month after the birth of a child, and physical and mental health outcomes measured concurrently and at 6 months and 1 year postpartum in a sample of 214 women in the Community Child Health Network study. Outcomes of interest were postpartum depressive symptoms, pregnancy weight gain, postpartum weight retention, and two biomarkers of maternal stress (blood pressure and salivary cortisol).
After adjusting for covariates including race/ethnicity and prepregnancy body mass index, weight-related everyday discrimination was associated with greater postpartum depressive symptoms at 1 month postpartum. Weight-related everyday discrimination was also associated with greater pregnancy weight gain and greater weight gain in excess of the recommendations set by the Institute of Medicine. Additionally, weight-related discrimination prospectively predicted greater postpartum depressive symptoms and weight retention at 1 year postpartum. Weight-related everyday discrimination was not associated with blood pressure or cortisol.
These findings offer novel evidence that experiencing weight stigma during pregnancy and in the early postpartum period is prospectively associated with adverse mental and physical health outcomes for women after birth, implicating weight stigma as a potential maternal health threat. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
体重歧视会对普通人群的健康产生不利影响，但几乎没有研究探讨过怀孕期间体重歧视可能带来的负面影响。本研究检验了在怀孕过程中经历体重歧视是否与母亲在产后第一年的身心健康呈负相关。
本研究通过社区儿童健康网络研究中的 214 名女性，在孩子出生后 1 个月测量了日常生活中与体重相关的歧视经历，并在同期和产后 6 个月和 1 年测量了身心健康结果，检验了这些经历之间的关联。感兴趣的结果包括产后抑郁症状、孕期体重增加、产后体重滞留以及两种反映母源性压力的生物标志物（血压和唾液皮质醇）。
在调整了包括种族/民族和孕前体重指数在内的协变量后，与体重相关的日常歧视与产后 1 个月时的产后抑郁症状增加有关。与体重相关的日常歧视也与孕期体重增加和超过医学研究所建议的体重增加有关。此外，体重相关歧视可预测产后 1 年时的产后抑郁症状和体重滞留。与体重相关的日常歧视与血压或皮质醇无关。
这些发现提供了新的证据，表明怀孕期间和产后早期经历体重歧视与女性产后的身心健康不良结果呈前瞻性相关，这表明体重歧视可能是一种潜在的产妇健康威胁。（PsycINFO 数据库记录（c）2019 APA，保留所有权利）。
