Racial Differences in Obese Youth's Perception of Health Care and Weight Loss

Within the United States, minority youth are at greater risk of becoming overweight/obese and are less likely to receive preventive health care. The authors examined several domains of preventive health care perceptions among persistently overweight/obese white and black adolescents. A total of 55 youth (29 white, 26 black) who had previously sought weight management treatment participated in a follow-up study 4 years later (M(years) = 4.2 +/- 0.8). All participants remained overweight (5% at the 85th-94th BMI percentiles) or obese (95% >= 95th BMI percentile), with no significant difference in weight by race. Relative to whites, blacks perceived greater physician concern about and counseling regarding weight (P(concern) < .01; P(counsel) < .01), eating habits(P(concern) < .001; P(counsel) < .01), and physical activity (P(concern) < .001; P (counsel) < .05). Although whites reported knowing more weight-related comorbidities than blacks, there were no group differences in number of weight loss methods attempted (M methods = 7.5 +/- 2.7). Overall, there were no group differences in perceptions of risk. Physicians may be appropriately focusing efforts on educating black youth, but knowledge and behavior gaps persist.