Relationships between Sexual Orientation, Weight, and Health in a Population-Based Sample of California Women

BackgroundMost biomedical research has reported associations between weight and physical health problems; little is known about whether those associations vary by sexual identity.MethodsPooled data from the 2003 through 2013 waves of the California Health Interview Survey was used to construct logistic regression models to examine whether the associations between weight and four chronic conditions (type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and asthma) varied by sexual identity.ResultsA total of 97,720 heterosexual and 2,822 lesbian/bisexual women comprised the analytic sample. There was a significant interaction between weight status and sexual identity (p < .001) for all four chronic diseases. Among lesbian/bisexual women, weight status was positively associated with heart disease, hypertension, asthma, and diabetes, although the associations between any weight status and heart disease, and between overweight and asthma, were not statistically significant. Among heterosexual women, weight status was positively and significantly associated with heart disease, hypertension, asthma, and diabetes. Except for overweight and heart disease, these associations remained significant after adjustment for covariates.ConclusionThis study underscores the importance of disaggregating analyses by sexual identity in studies that examine weight-chronic disease associations.