Skip Navigation



American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on June 22, 2009
American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwp135
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
170/4/456    most recent
kwp135v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kuk, J. L.
Right arrow Articles by Blair, S. N.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Kuk, J. L.
Right arrow Articles by Blair, S. N.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

American Journal of Epidemiology © The Author 2009. Published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Original Contribution

Ideal Weight and Weight Satisfaction: Association With Health Practices

Jennifer L. Kuk, Chris I. Ardern, Timothy S. Church, James R. Hebert, Xuemei Sui and Steven N. Blair

Correspondence to Dr. Jennifer L. Kuk, School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 (e-mail: jennkuk{at}yorku.ca).

Received for publication January 30, 2009. Accepted for publication April 30, 2009.

Evidence suggests that individuals have become more tolerant of higher body weights over time. To investigate this issue further, the authors examined cross-sectional associations among ideal weight, examination year, and obesity as well as the association of ideal weight and body weight satisfaction with health practices among 15,221 men and 4,126 women in the United States. Participants in 1987 reported higher ideal weights than participants in 2001, an effect particularly pronounced from 1987 to 2001 for younger and obese men (85.5 kg to 94.9 kg) and women (62.2 kg to 70.5 kg). For a given body mass index, higher ideal body weights were associated with greater weight satisfaction but lower intentions to lose weight. Body weight satisfaction was subsequently associated with greater walking/jogging, better diet, and lower lifetime weight loss but with less intention to change physical activity and diet or lose weight (P < 0.01). Conversely, body mass index was negatively associated with weight satisfaction (P < 0.01) and was associated with less walking/jogging, poorer diet, and greater lifetime weight loss but with greater intention to change physical activity and diet or lose weight. Although the health implications of these findings are somewhat unclear, increased weight satisfaction, in conjunction with increases in societal overweight/obesity, may result in decreased motivation to lose weight and/or adopt healthier lifestyle behaviors.

body image; body weight; body weight changes; diet; motor activity

Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index; CI, confidence interval; HAES, Health at Every Size; OR, odds ratio


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.