BACKGROUND Obesity is disproportionately prevalent among many racial/ethnic minority communities. The efficacy of weight control efforts in these groups may depend on individual's ability to accurately perceive their weight status. We examined whether racial/ethnic differences exist in weight status misperception among overweight adults. METHODS Nationally-representative data from the Nationa...

OBJECTIVE To investigate associations between weight status and body size perception in children in the UK. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SETTING School-based sample in the UK. PARTICIPANTS 399 children (205 boys, 194 girls) aged 7-9 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Perceived body size was assessed using a visual method (Children's Body Image Scale, matching to images representing body mas...

BACKGROUND In order to develop appropriate obesity control and treatment strategies, the key point is to understand the barriers perceived by overweight or obese people in trying to follow weight-loss programs. This study examined perceived barriers to weight-loss programs among overweight or obese women. METHODS In this descriptive-analytical study, 204 overweight or obese women aged 31.97± ...

Purpose: Only a small fraction of overweight people get enough exercise to improve health. club environment may cause the overweight person to have low perceived control and low self The objectives of this study were to determine the perceived behavioral control and self weight (NW) adults have toward health club exercise and what individual factors affect their perceived control and self Metho...

Accurately interpreting other's emotions through facial expressions has important adaptive values for social interactions. However, due to the stereotypical social perception of overweight individuals as carefree, humorous, and light-hearted, the body weight of those with whom we interact may have a systematic influence on our emotion judgment even though it has no relevance to the expressed em...

OBJECTIVES We examined whether factors associated with attempting to lose weight in a hospital-based employee workforce varied by race/ethnicity. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional survey in 6 hospitals in a health system in central Massachusetts. The stratified random sample included 813 employees; men and and non-White employees were oversampled. The primary outcome measure was current ...

Public concern about childhood obesity and associated health problems calls for the identification of modifiable factors that could halt this epidemic. Parental perceptions of their children's weight status could be associated to how parents influence children's eating patterns. We aimed to identify the perceptions Puerto Rican parents have of their children's weight and children's own percepti...

Maintaining behavior change is one of the major challenges in weight management and long-term weight loss. We investigated the impact of the cognitive complexity of eating rules on adherence to weight management programs. We studied whether popular weight management programs can fail if participants find the rules too complicated from a cognitive perspective, meaning that individuals are not ab...

BACKGROUND Health professionals play a key role in the prevention and treatment of excess weight and obesity, but many have expressed a lack of confidence in their ability to manage obese patients with their delivery of weight-management care remaining limited. The specific mechanism underlying inadequate practices in professional weight management remains unclear. The primary purpose of this s...