Life Course Perspective and Body Weight Discrimination: An Integrated Approach to Understand the Relationship Between Obesity and Food Insecurity in Women.

Abstract

Introduction: Excess body weight, is a prevalent and growing health problem among U.S. women and has multiple consequences on their health. Women with excess weight experience discrimination in multiple domains. Multiple studies have concluded that household food insecurity (HFI) is often associated with excess body weight in women, but not men. The more prevalent assumption has been that HFI leads to obesity. But, there has been an increase in the studies that propose the opposite. Purpose: Applying a life course perspective will provide a better understanding about how weight-based discrimination, across multiple domains, and poorer health due to obesity may lead to food insecurity in women. Results: Reduced opportunities in the domains of employment, education and marital relationships have a considerable impact on the economic situation of the excess weight women and finally could lead obese women to food insecurity. Conclusion: Using this approach has the potential to ask research questions that have been previously unexplored and plan interventions and policies to address this health inequality.

Keywords

• obesity
• food insecurity
• weight discrimination
• women