Purpose and Hypothesis

1
Association between Coping with Perceived Racism,
Hostility and Obesity in African-American
Women Georica Gholson, MS¹, Mana Ali, BA¹, Denee
T. Mwendwa, PhD¹, Regina Sims, PhD¹, Joneis
Thomas, PhD¹, Nathaniel Giles1, Clive O.
Callender, MD², Alfonso Campbell Jr., PhD¹
Howard University1 and Howard University
Hospital2 Washington, DC 20059
Results
Discussion
Background
Table 1. Sample Characteristics
Variable M SD
Age 47 10.85
Cook Medley Scale 22.75 8.41
Coping with Perceived Racism 8.43 4.96
BMI 32.32 9.34
Systolic BP 132.51 19.64
Diastolic BP 79.35 14.16
Years of Education 14.20 2.46

Income
Less than 20,00 43.2
20,001 - 40,000 22.9
40,001 - 65,000 22.0
65,001 - 80,000 7.3
More than 80,000 4.6

• Racism is a unique stressor that African
  Americans have had to experience. This type of
  stress may help to explain the disparities that
  exist in weight between African-American women
  and their racial/ethnic counterparts (Mays,
  Cochran Barnes, 2007).
• Coping with stress has been associated with
  maladaptive health behaviors such as overeating,
  emotional eating, smoking, and physical
  inactivity that contribute to obesity (Torres
  Nowson, 2007 Sims et al, 2008 Steptoe, Wardle,
  Pollard, Canaan, Davies, 1996).
• Although health behaviors were not assessed in
  this current study, literature suggests an
  association between coping with stress and
  behaviors that lead to overweight and obese
  conditions. In this particular sample of
  African-American women, maladaptive health
  behaviors may have been used to manage perceived
  racism, which may help explain increased BMI.

• Approximately 80 of African-American women are
  overweight or obese (American Heart Association,
  2006).
• Psychological stress has been linked to obesity
  (Dallman, 2009). Perceived racism is a type of
  stress unique to African Americans that has
  received little attention in the literature as it
  pertains to health outcomes (Clark, Anderson,
  Clark, Williams, 1999).
• Perceived racism is associated with weight gain
  (Cozier, Wise, Palmer Rosenberg, 2009).
• Hostility has also been associated with behaviors
  that lead to obese and overweight conditions such
  as physical inactivity and increased caloric
  intake (Allen, Markovitz, Jacobs Knox, 2001).

Table 2. Correlations between study variables
before and after adjusting for age, education,
and income
Unadjusted Adjusted
Implications
Purpose and Hypothesis
Coping with Perceived Racism .414 .354
Hostility .209 .149

Purpose The purpose of this research is to
further extend the current knowledge on obesity
in African-American women to include coping with
perceived racism and hostility. More
specifically, the goal is to establish whether
coping with perceived racism and hostility
predict obesity. Hypotheses We hypothesized
that coping with perceived racism and hostility
will be positively correlated with obesity. In
addition, we hypothesized coping with perceived
racism and hostility will also be independent
predictors of BMI.

• These findings indicate that coping with
  perceived racism is critical for a thorough
  assessment of obesity risk in African- American
  women.
• Health professionals should assess for
  psychological stressors that are relevant to the
  African-American experience.
• Weight loss interventions should incorporate
  stress management techniques that strengthen
  psychological resources available to help
  African-American women cope with unique stressors
  in their lives such as perceived racism.

p lt 0.05 p lt 0.01
Table 3. Hierarchical regression coping with
perceived racism predicting BMI
Table 4. Hierarchical regression hostility
predicting BMI
BMI B SE B ß
Step 1
Coping w/ perceived racism .06 .02 .40
Step 2
Coping w/ perceived racism .06 .02 .40
Age .01 .01 .10
Education -.09 .04 -.28
Income -.03 .04 -.07
BMI B SE B ß
Step1
Hostility .20 .10 .19
Step 2
Hostility .02 .01 .16
Age .01 .01 .12
Education -.08 .04 -.24
Income -.07 .04 -.20
Acknowledgments
Design and Methodology

• Participants The participants were a community
  based sample of African-American women, 18 to 73
  years of age, who resided in the Washington, DC
  Metropolitan Area.
• Setting The study site was Howard University
  Hospitals
• General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) located
  in
• Washington, DC.
• Tests and Measures Participants were
  administered the Perceived Racism Scale (McNeilly
  et al., 1996) and Cook Medley Hostility (Ho)
  Scale (Cook Medley, 1954). Participants also
  underwent a medical examination, which included
  weight and height measurements that were used to
  calculate BMI.
• Data Analysis Partial and bivariate correlations
  and hierarchical regression analyses were
  utilized. BMI was square root transformed to
  correct for skewness.

• This research is part of a larger study entitled
  Stress and Psychoneuroimmunological Factors in
  Renal Health and Disease that is funded by The
  National Center on Minority Health and Health
  Disparities under grant 1P20MD000512-04, A
  Research Center to Reduce Ethnic Disparities in
  ESRD.
• This poster was made possible by Howard
  University's General Clinical Research Center
  grant 2MO1-RR010284 from the National Center for
  Research Resources (NCRR) a component of the
  National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its
  contents are solely the responsibility of the
  authors and do not necessarily represent the
  official view of NCRR or NIH.
• We would like to thank the Health Promotion and
  Risk Reduction Research Center (HealthPARC) team
  for their assistance.

Note R2 .16 for Model 1 R2 .28 for Model 2
p lt 0.05 p lt 0.01
Note R2 .04 for Model 1 R2 .20 for Model 2
p lt 0.05 p lt 0.01

• Coping with perceived racism and hostility were
  correlated with BMI.
• After adjusting for age, income, and years of
  education, only the relationship between coping
  with perceived racism persisted.
• Coping with perceived racism predicted higher BMI
  after adjusting for age, income, and years of
  education.