Body weight and goal setting among African American young women: California Health Interview Survey (CHIS)

Overweight prevalence rates among American adolescent females nearly tripled over the past three decades to above 15.5% in 2000 (Carroll et al., 2002) where African American young women, represented the majority. Increasing body weight represents a health disparity among African American young women deserving focused attention because of its impact on making life plans. Because few research studies explore differences in planning by body weight, this study estimated the relationship between differing body weights (as measured by age adjusted body mass index percentiles) and plans after high school for 1,962 racially diverse adolescent women using the 2003 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) data. Significant differences existed between adjusted BMI figures and racial background. Multinomial logistic regressions revealed significant contributing factors to this relationship as age (RRR = 1.66; p < .01), receiving food stamps (RRR = 1.01; p < .05), being in general good physical health (RRR = 5.97; p < .05), and identifying a role model (RRR = 5.25; p < .05). Interestingly, obese young women planned to attend college at lower rates than young women of normal weight. The findings suggest that obesity's higher prevalence among African American young women calls for public health social workers to promote intervention strategies that integrate planning for the future in addition to healthy weight loss strategies to reduce the potential for health problems. Session participants will be able to: describe, identify and discuss childhood obesity and futures planning research for African American young women compared to other racial groups.