ArticleThe international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity2010
Causal beliefs about obesity and associated health behaviors: results from a population-based survey.
Article in The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Impact of Perceived Etiology, Treatment Type, and Wording of Treatment Information on the Assessment of Gastritis Treatments.Frontiers in public health · 2020Trial
- Genetic susceptibility testing and readiness to control weight: Results from a randomized controlled trial.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2015Trial
- Causal Attributions for Obesity and Weight Loss in the Healthy Weight Coaching Program, a 12-Month Online Lifestyle Intervention.Obesity facts · 2026Article
- Examining relationships between multifactorial health beliefs and beliefs about the social implications of genetics.Journal of health psychology · 2026Article
- Examination of Gender Differences: Causal Attributions of Treatment-Seeking Individuals With Overweight and Obesity.Clinical psychology in Europe · 2024Article
- A 30-nation investigation of lay heritability beliefs.Public understanding of science (Bristol, England) · 2024Article
- Factors Associated with the Health-Related Self-Care Capacity of Overweight and Obese People.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Diabetes causal attributions: Pathways to stigma and health.Stigma and health · 2024Article
- 'It's been a lifelong thing for me': parents' experiences of facilitating a healthy lifestyle for their children with severe obesity.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Factors related to moderate exercise during COVID-19 for overweight and obese individuals: A secondary analysis of HINTS data.PEC innovation · 2022Article
- Public beliefs about the consequences of living with obesity in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Is obesity in the brain? Parent perceptions of brain influences on obesity.Pediatric obesity · 2022Article
- Article
- Women's beliefs about what causes obesity: variation by race/ethnicity and acculturation in a Washington State sample.Ethnicity & health · 2020Article
- Public beliefs about causes of obesity in the USA and in Germany.International journal of public health · 2019Article
- Learning one's genetic risk changes physiology independent of actual genetic risk.Nature human behaviour · 2019Article
- Causal Attributions for Obesity Among Patients Seeking Surgical Versus Behavioral/Pharmacological Weight Loss Treatment.Obesity surgery · 2018Article
- "I don't believe it." Acceptance and skepticism of genetic health information among African-American and White smokers.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2017Article
- Self-Regulation Principles Underlying Risk Perception and Decision Making within the Context of Genomic Testing.Social and personality psychology compass · 2017Article
- "Obesity is the New Major Cause of Cancer": Connections Between Obesity and Cancer on Facebook and Twitter.Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSeveral genetic variants are associated with obesity risk. Promoting the notion of genes as a cause for obesity may increase genetically deterministic beliefs and decrease motivation to engage in healthy lifestyle behaviors. Little is known about whether causal beliefs about obesity are associated with lifestyle behaviors. Study objectives were as follows: 1) to document the prevalence of various causal beliefs about obesity (i.e., genes versus lifestyle behaviors), and 2) to determine the association between obesity causal beliefs and self-reported dietary and physical activity behaviors.
methodsThe study data were drawn from the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). A total of 3,534 individuals were included in the present study.
resultsOverall, 72% of respondents endorsed the belief that lifestyle behaviors have 'a lot' to do with causing obesity, whereas 19% indicated that inheritance has 'a lot' to do with causing obesity. Multinomial logistic regression analyses indicated that the belief that obesity is inherited was associated with lower reported levels of physical activity (OR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.77-0.99) and fruit and vegetable consumption (OR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.76-0.99). In contrast, the belief that obesity is caused by lifestyle behaviors was associated with greater reported levels of physical activity (OR = 1.29, 95% CI: 1.03-1.62), but was not associated with fruit and vegetable intake (OR = 1.07, 95% CI: 0.90-1.28).
conclusionsCausal beliefs about obesity are associated with some lifestyle behaviors. Additional research is needed to determine whether promoting awareness of the genetic determinants of obesity will decrease the extent to which individuals will engage in the lifestyle behaviors essential to healthy weight management.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.