Overweight and obesity in sexual-minority women: Evidence from population-based data

U. Boehmer, D.J. Bowen and G.R. Bauer

American Journal of Public Health, 2007, vol. 97, issue 6, 1134-1140

Abstract: Objective. We sought to determine whether lesbians have higher rates of overweight and obesity than women of other sexual orientations. Methods. We compared population estimates of overweight and obesity across sexual orientation groups, using data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth. Results. Adjusted multinomial logistic regression analyses showed lesbians have more than twice the odds of overweight (odds ratio [OR]=2.69; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.40, 5.18) and obesity (OR=2.47; 95% CI=1.19, 5.09) as heterosexual women. Bisexuals and women who reported their sexual orientation as "something else" (besides heterosexual, lesbian, or bisexual) showed no such increase in the odds of overweight and obesity. Conclusions. Lesbian women have a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity than all other female sexual orientation groups. This finding suggests that lesbians are at greater risk for morbidity and mortality linked to overweight and obesity. This finding also highlights the need for interventions within this population.

Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2006.088419

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2006.088419_2

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2006.088419

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().