Healthy Futures for Young Women With Obesity: A Mixed Methods Study

Abstract

Purpose

In young women with obesity, we sought to explore their: (1) psychosocial health; (2) perceptions of their and engagement in current health behaviors; (2) motivation to change their health behaviors; and (3) desired characteristics of a health behavior intervention.

Approach

Convergent-parallel mixed methods study.

Setting

Focus groups were conducted over zoom.

Participants

34 young women with obesity (M ± SD; age = 23.79 ± 4.22 years; BMI = 35.66 ± 5.56 kg/m²; 41.2% non-Hispanic White).

Method

Quantitative data were collected via Qualtrics prior to focus groups. We conducted 8 semi-structured focus groups (2-7 participants per group; 32-93 minutes) to address the pre-specified objectives.

Results

Participants reported poor psychosocial health, with 100% meeting the cut-point indicative of significant depressive symptoms and 79.4% for clinically meaningful anxiety. Participants expressed the interconnectedness of their physical and mental health and desire to improve consistency in their eating and physical activity behaviors. However, participants did not want to emphasize weight loss as the primary focus of a health behavior intervention. Preferences for the characteristics of a health behavior intervention were in support of a hybrid format, with in-person meetings focusing on active engagement (e.g., cooking classes).

Conclusions

Our findings support shifting the focus from a weight-normative to a weight inclusive approach to health behavior interventions to meet the needs and preferences of young women with obesity.