Negative weight-based attitudes in treatment-seeking obese monolingual Hispanic patients with and without binge eating disorder

Objective: The aims of this study were to compare weight-based attitudes in obese Latino adults with and without binge eating disorder (BED) and to examine whether these attitudes are related to indices of eating disorder psychopathology and psychological functioning.

Method: Participants were a consecutive series of 79 monolingual Spanish-speaking-only obese Latinos (65 female, 14 male) participating in a randomized placebo-controlled trial performed at a Hispanic community mental health center. Participants were categorized as meeting the criteria for BED (n = 40) or obese non-binge-eating controls (n = 39) based on diagnostic and semistructured interviews administered by fully bilingual research clinicians trained specifically for this study.

Results: Analyses revealed that negative attitudes toward obesity did not differ significantly between the BED and non-binge-eating groups nor were they correlated with the intensity of eating disorder psychopathology (eg, levels of weight and shape concerns). Overall, the levels of negative attitudes toward obesity in this Latino/Latina group are similar to those reported previously for samples of English-speaking primarily white obese persons.

Discussion: These findings suggest that it may be obesity per se-rather than eating disorder psychopathology or body image-that heightens vulnerability to negative weight-based attitudes.