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Perception of Obesity in African-American and Arab-American Minority Groups

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Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Effectiveness of health education programs and interventions, designed to improve obesity rates, may vary according to perceptions of health within cultural groups.

Method

A qualitative approach was used. Two minority cultural groups (Arab-American and African-American) living in the same county were studied to compare perceptions of health, nutrition, and obesity and subsequent health behaviors.

Results

Control, expectations, bias, acceptance, and access were the five themes identified. Arab-Americans that had lower weights, lower prevalence of chronic diseases, expected healthy weights, reported age and gender bias related to being overweight were not as accepting of being overweight and did not report difficulties in accessing healthy food choices compared to their African-American counterparts.

Conclusions

Health interventions aimed at reducing obesity rates and related chronic diseases should be culturally specific and aimed at changing expected and accepted cultural norms. Cultural group’s void of certain disease states should be studied and used as models to ameliorate the problem in other cultures. Changing health behaviors within a certain cultural group may produce better outcomes when initiated from a member of that same group. The impact of economic and environmental factors on health behaviors must also be considered.

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Compliance with Ethical Standards

The study was not externally funded. No procedures were performed throughout this study; however, the interview process involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Participants were informed of their right to withdraw from the study at any time. No identifying information about individual participants was collected.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest relating to the study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Detroit Mercy, College of Health Professions, 4001 W. McNichols Rd., Detroit, MI, 48221, USA

    Molly L. McClelland & Carmon V. N. Weekes

  2. Beaumont Health Hospital (Medical ICU), Wayne MI & Part-Time Lecturer (Clinical Instructor) Eastern Michigan University, 33155 Venoy Rd., Ypsilanti, MI, USA

    Hussein Bazzi

  3. St. John Hospital & Medical Center, 22101 Moross Rd., Detroit, MI, 48236, USA

    Joshua Warwinsky

  4. Oakland University, 2200 North Squirrel Road, Rochester, MI, 48309, USA

    Wassim Abouarabi

  5. DaVita Kresge Dialysis Center, 4145 Cass Ave., Detroit, MI, 48301-1707, USA

    Felicia Snell

  6. CPR Home Care, 7511 Orchard Ave., Dearborn, MI, USA

    Tarick Salamey

Authors
  1. Molly L. McClelland
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  2. Carmon V. N. Weekes
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  3. Hussein Bazzi
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  4. Joshua Warwinsky
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  5. Wassim Abouarabi
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  6. Felicia Snell
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  7. Tarick Salamey
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Molly L. McClelland.

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McClelland, M.L., Weekes, C.V.N., Bazzi, H. et al. Perception of Obesity in African-American and Arab-American Minority Groups. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 3, 160–167 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-015-0127-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-015-0127-6

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