Researchers have been unable to explain why after giving birth, Black patients are two to three times as likely to retain or gain additional weight compared to their white counterparts, even when pre-pregnancy weight and gestational-weight trajectories are comparable. A first-of-its-kind study by University of Pittsburgh epidemiologists points to the stress of lived experiences with racism and gender-based discrimination as a possible explanation. The study was reported today in the American Journal of Epidemiology .
Since postpartum weight retention is associated with increased cardiovascular risk and other negative health outcomes that persist throughout one's life, the new research suggests interventions that address the underlying stressors of discrimination could be an important complement to community and clinical interventions. Beyond individual choices and behavior, we have to account for an individual's environment, because that can have an impact on health, too. Context matters, and lived experiences matter.
How can we link people to appropriate services and support in the postpartum period, in light of exposure to stress and experiences of discrimination?" Dara Méndez, Ph.D., M.
P.H., lead author, associate professor of epidemiology and associate director of the Center for Health Equity at Pitt Public Health As part of the Postpartum Mothers Mobile Study (PMOMS), researchers recruited 313 pregnant individuals between 2017 and 2020, following them from their second.
