Effects of Race-Specific Prevalence and Racial Disparity Information About Obesity and Diabetes

ABSTRACT

There are significant racial disparities in obesity and diabetes such that prevalence rates are higher among Black Americans than White Americans. This study examined effects of communicating the prevalence of obesity/diabetes and comparing race-specific prevalence rates between White and Black Americans to highlight racial health disparities. We conducted two preregistered, between-subjects randomized online experiments with an analytic sample of 1,232 U.S. adults (n = 609 for the obesity study and n = 623 for the diabetes study) stratified by race. In each experiment, we randomly assigned respondents to read an obesity/diabetes message 1) without disease prevalence information, 2) with the national obesity/diabetes prevalence rate, 3) with the race-specific obesity/diabetes prevalence rate among White Americans, 4) with the race-specific prevalence rate among Black Americans, or 5) comparing the race-specific prevalence rates between White and Black Americans, or 6) to a no-message condition. Results showed that diabetes prevalence information reduced the overestimation of race-specific diabetes prevalence. Comparing the obesity prevalence rate among White Americans to that of Black Americans increased support for policies to reduce racial health disparities, but also made Black respondents less likely to cut calories. Race-specific disease prevalence information and intergroup disease prevalence comparisons may have both positive and unintended consequences on message recipients. Health educators should be more cautious when communicating disease prevalence information.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Cornell Center for Social Sciences under [Grant No. U32800].