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Place of Worship Relationship Satisfaction and Pregnancy Weight Gain in African-American Women
Gaining the recommended weight during pregnancy continues to be a challenge for women in the United States. In Detroit, minority women also have high rates of non-ideal weight gain. Among African-Americans, high rates of religiosity as compared to other races have been found. To better understand the associations between religion and health outcomes, this study seeks to investigate the association between place of worship relationship satisfaction of metropolitan Detroit African-African women and pregnancy weight gain. This study also seeks to understand religious denominational differences within pre-pregnancy weight.
Materials/Methods
Data from 1,411 African-American women was retrieved from the Life-course Influences on Fetal Environment (LIFE) study. Chi-square and logistic regression were used to analyze demographic variables and the association between place of worship relationship satisfaction and pregnancy weight gain. Independent samples T-test was used to analyze mean pre-pregnancy weights and denomination.
Results
Place of worship relationship satisfaction and pregnancy weight gain were not significantly associated. Two demographic variables, age and pre-pregnancy weight, were significantly associated with pregnancy weight gain. There was also a significant difference in the mean pre-pregnancy weight of the women in this sample when grouped into Charismatic Protestant Christian and non-Charismatic Protestant Christian denominations.
Discussion
Although place of worship relationship satisfaction and weight gain were not significantly associated a few other factors were found to be associated with adequate pregnancy weight gain in African-American women. Continued research on culturally tailored faith-based interventions could be useful to address denominational differences and improve the likelihood of better health outcomes for African-American women and their children.
Learning Areas:
Public health or related researchLearning Objectives:
Describe the associations found between pregnancy weight gain and demographic variables (which include marital status, age, WIC recipient, pre-pregnancy weight, and denomination) for this study.
Describe the associations found between pregnancy weight gain and place of worship relationship satisfaction for this study.
Describe differences in mean pre-pregancy weight among two Christian Protestant groups for this study.
Keyword(s): Perinatal Health, African American
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As a 2nd year master of public health student, I have received instruction in biostatistics,epidemiology, statistical software usage, and research methods to be able to conduct public health research. I also received constant supervision and guidance from the co-author, a faculty member, throughout each step of the projects research process. This faculty member has years of research experience in the field of perinatal/social epidemiology. I have also presented a poster at the Michigan Epidemiology Conference.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.