| Title |
Is Obesity Contagious by Way of Body Image? A Study on Japanese Female Students in the United States
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Journal of Community Health, April 2013
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s10900-013-9686-9 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Rinako Bagrowicz, Chiho Watanabe, Masahiro Umezaki |
| Abstract |
Although it has been suggested that obesity is 'contagious' within the social network, direct cause of this spread of obesity remains unclear. This study hypothesized that Body Image (BI), the perception of one's own body size, may play a role in this obesity spread, since a high prevalence of obesity could shift people's perception of 'what is normal'. Young Japanese females (n = 53) were interviewed within 1 month after moving to New York City, where the prevalence of obesity is substantially higher than that of their home country, Japan. Each participant was examined for her BI in terms of current body size (CBS) and ideal body size (IBS). They were interviewed again 2 months after the first examination. Between the two interviews, the participants' CBS was decreased (having thinner self-image), while the IBS increased (having fatter ideal-image), leading to less dissatisfaction (smaller CBS-IBS) with their body size. These results suggest that one's BI could change in a period as short as 2 months, possibly because of being surrounded by more obese people. The IBS change was positively associated with BMI change (increased by 0.4 ± 0.6 kg/m²), warranting further study on the role of BI in the spread of obesity. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 10 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 3 | 30% |
| Australia | 3 | 30% |
| Argentina | 1 | 10% |
| United States | 1 | 10% |
| Unknown | 2 | 20% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 6 | 60% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 3 | 30% |
| Scientists | 1 | 10% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 43 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Indonesia | 1 | 2% |
| Unknown | 42 | 98% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Bachelor | 7 | 16% |
| Researcher | 6 | 14% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 6 | 14% |
| Student > Master | 5 | 12% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 5 | 12% |
| Other | 8 | 19% |
| Unknown | 6 | 14% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 12 | 28% |
| Social Sciences | 6 | 14% |
| Psychology | 6 | 14% |
| Sports and Recreations | 3 | 7% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 2 | 5% |
| Other | 7 | 16% |
| Unknown | 7 | 16% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 14. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 26 April 2017.
All research outputs
#2,248,863
of 22,707,247 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Community Health
#140
of 1,211 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#19,868
of 199,319 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Community Health
#3
of 21 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,707,247 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,211 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 11.9. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 21 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its contemporaries.