Racial/ethnic differences in body weight perception among U.S. college students

ABSTRACT

Objective: To examine racial/ethnic differences in weight perception by sex among U.S. college students. Participants: a national sample (N = 70,267) of college students selected from 2- and 4-year postsecondary institutions (N = 62) during the Fall semester from 2011 to 2014. Methods: This is a secondary data analysis using 4 years of American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment IIb data. Sex-stratified multinomial logistic regression was performed to investigate racial/ethnic differences in body weight perception. Results: Compared with non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic black men and women were more likely to underestimate their body weight (p < .01). Asian men and women were more likely to overestimate their body weight than non-Hispanic whites (p < .001). Conclusions: Weight-related interventions should take into account racial/ethnic differences in body weight perception.

KEYWORDS:

• Body weight perception
• college students
• obesity
• weight overestimation

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the US and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of the lead author's institution.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.