Weight and social comparison: Does the weight of a stranger affect a person's perception of their own weight?

Research suggests that social context affects individuals' perception of their own weight. Using face-to-face interviews as the social context, we analyze the effect of interviewers' (N = 90) body mass index on respondents' (N = 3068) self-perceived weight level. Respondents reported a higher weight level when the interviewer had a higher body mass index (absolute social comparison).

Hearing loss and disability exit: Measurement issues and coping strategies.

Hearing loss is one of the most common conditions related to aging, and previous descriptive evidence links it to early exit from the labor market. These studies are usually based on self-reported hearing difficulties, which are potentially endogenous to labor supply. We use unique representative data collected in the spring of 2005 through in-home interviews.

Influences of Sex and BMI on the Weight Level Perception of Others.

Objectives: This study examines how the sex and body mass index (BMI) of both the observer (the interviewer) and the observed (the respondent) influence the way we perceive the weight level of others.

Methods: The study uses mixed-process IV regression and representative data from the Danish Longitudinal Survey of Youth - Children (DLSY-C) with 3015 respondents and 88 interviewers. Face-to-face interviews constitute the social setting, with interviewers estimating the weight level of the respondents, thereby avoiding bias from endogenous sorting of individuals into social contexts.

Social class differences in BMI among Danish women: applying Cockerham's health lifestyles approach and Bourdieu's theory of lifestyle.

Research on social class differences in obesity and weight-related outcomes has highlighted the need to consider how such class differences reflect the unequally distributed constellations of economic, cultural, and social resources that enable and constrain health-related habits and practices or health lifestyles. Motivated by this need, the present study applies a theoretical perspective that integrates Cockerham's (2005) health lifestyles theory with Bourdieu's (1984) theoretical scholarship on social class, lifestyles, and the body to analyzing class-based differences in body mass index (BMI) among adult female respondents of a 2007 Danish national survey (n = 1376). We test hypotheses concerning how respective levels of economic, cultural, and social capital that constitute women's social class membership are associated with BMI directly and via their influence on respondent's dietary-related values, preferences, behaviors, and exercise activities.

Gendered perceptions of own and partner weight-level.

This study investigates gender differences in perceptions of body weight. Previous research has found significant gender differences in perceived weight-level, but less is known about weight perceptions of the opposite gender. Based on Danish survey data (859 women and 160 men), the discrepancy between BMI weight-level and self-perceived weight-level is estimated as well as the perception of one's partner's weight-level.

Does parental capital influence the prevalence of child overweight and parental perceptions of child weight-level?

The prevalence of child obesity has increased steadily in the recent decades. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of lifestyle connecting objective conditions with preferences, values and behaviour, this paper seeks to provide an extension to previous research, which has found child body formation to be correlated with parental socioeconomic background. The paper shows how parental level of capital, especially cultural capital, influences the prevalence of child overweight and parental perceptions of child weight-levels.

The effect of home care on the ability to perform the activities of daily living and the well-being of older people.

With the considerable changes in population age-profiles, the preventive care of older people is becoming more and more important. We analyse the long-term effect of the provision of home care on the recipient's ability to perform the activities of daily living (ADLs) and upon aspects of their well-being. Using regression analysis on a set of Danish longitudinal data featuring people aged 67-77 we estimate the effect of home care while controlling for initial health, including initial ADL ability and well-being, along with demographic and socioeconomic conditions.