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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Life-Course Epidemiology and Social Inequalities in Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1498450

Using the socioecological model to explore factors associated with obesity among reproductive age women

Provisionally accepted
Amanda Gilbert Amanda Gilbert 1,2*Alicia Persaud Alicia Persaud 1,2Sarah Farabi Sarah Farabi 3,4Cindy Schwarz Cindy Schwarz 5Debra Haire-Joshu Debra Haire-Joshu 5Rachel G Tabak Rachel G Tabak 2
  • 1 Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, United States
  • 2 Prevention Research Center, St. Louis, United States
  • 3 Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
  • 4 Center for Human Nutrition, St. Louis, United States
  • 5 Center for Diabetes Translation Research, St Louis, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Women of reproductive age (18-44 years) are at an increased risk of developing obesity due to pregnancy, life-transitions, and marginalization. Obesity in women negatively affects women's health and pregnancy outcomes and can increase risk their children will develop obesity. Less is known about obesity risk at the interpersonal and environmental levels for women of reproductive age. This study uses the socioecological model to explore women's obesity risk across ecological levels.Materials and Methods: A secondary cross-sectional analysis was conducted using baseline data (March 2019-June 2022) from the cluster-randomized Healthy Eating and Active Living Taught at Home (HEALTH) Dissemination and Implementation study. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine associations between individual, interpersonal, and environmental level factors with weight status (overweight vs obesity).Results: Among 221 participants (43% Hispanic/Latino, 51% High school or less), 37% were overweight and 63% had obesity. Interpersonal and environmental factors were not statistically significantly associated with obesity relative to overweight in bivariate analyses. In multivariate models, individual level factors of high/moderate physical activity (OR=0.47, 95% CI: 0.26,0.84, p=0.01) and food insecurity (OR=2.51, 95% CI: 1.33,4.71, p=0.00) were statistically significantly related to risk of having obesity compared to being overweight. Discussion: Physical activity and food insecurity were associated with obesity in this study. Associations with interpersonal and environmental level factors were not statistically significant, which may be due to limited sample size or measures available to assess these levels. Future studies should investigate structural determinants (e.g., economic, neighborhood and physical environment), which may drive physical activity and food insecurity.

    Keywords: Obesity1, prevention2, women3, health behaviors4, ecological5

    Received: 19 Sep 2024; Accepted: 08 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Gilbert, Persaud, Farabi, Schwarz, Haire-Joshu and Tabak. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Amanda Gilbert, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.