Session: Weight Stigma, Health, and Healthcare for Black Americans (Society for Social Work and Research 31st Annual Conference)

Jane Addams said: “The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain...until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.” As social workers we strive for this in our everyday work; as social work researchers, it is our responsibility to conceptualize, conduct, and use research as a catalyst for inclusion, equity, and well-being for all. This symposium centers racial equity and justice in research and healthcare, by deliberately elevating Black experiences and perspectives in research, to improve health and well-being for all.

This symposium includes findings from four research studies on health and healthcare for Black men and women, 35 years of age or older, with a BMI > 25. While Black adults have a high prevalence of high body weight (Lofton et al., 2023), they remain underrepresented in the weight stigma and weight-related healthcare literature, and the intersections of race, sex, and weight on their healthcare usage are understudied. The first paper examines predictors of healthcare avoidance in a sample of Black men and women, and perceived impacts that social determinants of health and body size have on their treatment by healthcare providers. Findings indicate that Black men and women experience multiple barriers to care, and that weight and gender are salient factors in terms of both treatment perceptions and avoidance of healthcare. The second paper contributes to further understanding the relationships between weight and healthcare avoidance, by examining weight stigma and weight discrimination as predictors of healthcare avoidance for Black adults living in large bodies. Qualitative and quantitative findings, together, endorse weight stigma as a multidimensional barrier to healthcare engagement. The third paper examines relationships between internalized and externalized weight stigma, body appreciation, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Results indicated that body appreciation mediated relationships between both conceptualizations of weight stigma and physical and mental HRQOL, positioning body appreciation as a valuable intervention target for Black adults living in large bodies. One area of healthcare that has grown dramatically in the U.S is the usage of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications to promote weight loss. Research on its usage and potential consequences to well-being and health are needed. To address this need, the fourth paper examines usage of weight loss medications (e.g., GLP-1) in relation to eating disorder symptoms for Black adults living in larger bodies. Findings indicate that users of weight loss medications reported more symptoms of eating disorders in terms of restricted eating, shape and weight over-valuation, and bingeing.

These studies together elevate the experiences of Black men and women in research on weight stigma, health, and healthcare, and provide important contributions to the literature that can be acted upon. Social work researchers and interventionists are well-positioned to further advance these efforts by using anti-racist methods and ensuring deliberate inclusion of Black individuals in research and intervention design, to support just and inclusive healthcare and equitable health outcomes for Black men and women.