Sexual Orientation and Obesity: Test of a Gendered Biopsychosocial Model

描述(由申请者提供：性取向和肥胖：性别生物心理社会模型测试肥胖是当今影响美国的最关键的公共卫生问题之一。在肥胖的决定因素、分布和后果方面的种族和社会经济差异正受到越来越多的关注；然而，刚刚开始认识到的一个领域是性别和性取向在肥胖差异中的显著相互作用。现在公认的是，少数性取向女性受到肥胖流行病的影响不成比例，近四分之三的成年女同性恋者超重或肥胖，而异性恋女性的这一比例为一半。与此形成鲜明对比的是，在男性中，异性恋男性患肥胖症的风险几乎是同性恋男性的两倍。尽管来自描述性流行病学研究的明确证据表明，性取向和性别明显影响肥胖差异，但几乎没有前瞻性的、分析性的流行病学研究来研究这些差异的原因。除非我们像我们计划的那样，首先回答有关因果途径的基本问题，否则不可能制定基于证据的预防干预措施。我们的研究不仅对性少数群体而且对异性恋者的公共健康影响具有很高的潜力，因为我们试图揭示性别社会化过程如何可能加剧性少数群体女性和异性恋男性的肥胖风险。为了响应PA-07-409“不同人群的健康研究”，我们将严格测试我们的创新性别生物心理社会模型，该模型是多水平和多系统的，以解释观察到的肥胖的性取向差异。我们将使用纵向、重复测量的调查数据，以及来自三个青年队列的生物数据：今日成长研究(GUTS)1和2和国家青少年健康纵向研究(ADD Health)，所有正在进行的前瞻性队列总共有超过47,000名青年生活在美国各地。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant: Sexual Orientation and Obesity: Test of a Gendered Biopsychosocial Model Obesity is one of the most critical public health issues affecting the U.S. today. Racial and socioeconomic disparities in the determinants, distribution, and consequences of obesity are receiving increasing attention; however, one area that is only beginning to be recognized is the striking interplay of gender and sexual orientation in obesity disparities. It is now well-established that women of minority sexual orientation are disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic, with nearly three-quarters of adult lesbians overweight or obese, compared to half of heterosexual women. In stark contrast, among men, heterosexual males have nearly double the risk of obesity compared to gay males. Despite clear evidence from descriptive epidemiologic research that sexual orientation and gender markedly pattern obesity disparities, there is almost no prospective, analytic epidemiologic research into the causes of these disparities. It will be impossible to develop evidence-based preventive interventions unless we first answer basic questions about causal pathways, as we plan to do. Our study has high potential for public health impact not only for sexual minorities but also for heterosexuals, as we seek to uncover how processes of gender socialization may exacerbate obesity risk in both sexual minority females and heterosexual males. In response to PA-07-409 "Health Research with Diverse Populations," we will rigorously test our innovative gendered biopsychosocial model that is both multilevel and multisystem to explain observed sexual orientation disparities in obesity. We will use longitudinal, repeated measures survey data and also biological data from three youth cohorts: Growing Up Today Study (GUTS) 1 & 2 and National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), all ongoing prospective cohorts that together total over 47,000 youth living throughout the United States.