Are Socioeconomics Behind Racial Disparities in Weight?

The rate of obesity and chronic diseases varies substantially across different racial and ethnic groups, but the underlying causes of those disparities remain obscure. In a new study, low socioeconomic status (SES) appears to account for more of that disparity than does lack of knowledge of healthy eating habits and diet-related health risks.The study appears in the December issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

“Different from what we expected, few of the racial/ethnic differences in diet, exercise, and weight status were explained by health- and nutrition-related psychosocial factors. But SES explained a considerable portion of the disparities,” write Youfa Wang, MD, PhD, and Xiaoli Chen, MD, PhD, both from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland.

Specifically, SES explained 30% of the black–white difference in dietary quality, and about 40% of the difference in obesity.

Read the Full article at http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/754460?sssdmh=dm1.738444&src=nldne

Source:  by Ricki Lewis, PhD, for Medscape Medical News on November 30, 2011