Perceptions of overweight and obesity in their community: findings from focus groups with urban, African-American caretakers of preschool children.

Focus groups were conducted with parents, other caretakers, and teachers of urban, African-American preschool children attending Head Start. The research goal, congruent with the concept of cultural humility, was to elicit target population members' perspectives on the nature, importance, prevalence, and causes of overweight and obesity in their community, with an emphasis on childhood obesity. Themes that emerged revealed that participants defined obesity as a more extreme state than the medical definition, these same participants had a complex view of the relationships of weight and health, stressed numerous environmental factors contributing to obesity. Moreover these participants tended to offer suggestions for health professionals and those designing nutrition education interventions.