What women want: understanding obesity and preferences for primary care weight reduction interventions among African-American and Caucasian women.

PURPOSE: To explore attitudes and perceptions of obesity, and identify preferences for weight-management interventions by African-American and Caucasian women who were followed in general internal medicine clinics. PROCEDURE: Surveys exploring these issues were mailed to African-American (n=240) and Caucasian (n=240) women with a BMI of > or =30. MAIN
FINDINGS: Caucasian women felt past weight-loss efforts were helped by weight-loss programs significantly more than African-American women (P<0.001); African-American women were more likely to feel that their cultural background contributed to their weight gain than did Caucasian women (P=0.001). African-American women expressed a higher need for one-on-one counseling with their physician (P<0.001) as well as group meetings with the dietician, physician and other women (P=0.004) than did Caucasian women. African-American women also felt it was more important for weight-loss programs to have information on food common to their culture than did Caucasian women (P<0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Differences in cultural background and preferences about weight loss interventions have important policy implications for how the U.S. healthcare system provides care to an ever-increasing multicultural population with a national epidemic such as obesity.