Racial and ethnic disparities in the association between financial hardship and self-reported weight change during the first year of the pandemic in the U.S.

Table 4 Adjusted race-ethnicity specific associations between experiencing financial hardship domains and weight gain

	Lost Income^b	Unmet expenses^c	Debt^d	Unmet healthcare expenses^e	Housing insecurity^f	Food insecurity^g
	OR (95% CI)^a	OR (95% CI)^a	OR (95% CI)^a	OR(95% CI)^a	OR (95% CI)^a	OR (95% CI)^a
Overall	1.32 (1.10, 1.50)	1.15 (0.94, 1.41)	1.19 (1.00, 1.46)	1.13 (0.94, 1.37)	0.95 (0.76, 1.18)	1.02 (0.79, 1.31)
American Indian/Alaska Native	1.13 (0.65, 1.96)	0.64 (0.33, 1.24)	0.99 (0.53, 1.87)	1.42 (0.77, 2.61)	1.36 (0.77, 2.61)	1.67 (0.81, 3.45)
Asian	1.62 (1.12, 2.29)	0.73 (0.42, 1.28)	1.42 (0.93, 2.16)	0.95 (0.57, 1.58)	1.64 (0.89, 3.03)	0.72 (0.33, 1.59)
Black/ African American	1.23 (0.84,1.77)	0.94 (0.61, 1.45)	1.25 (0.83, 1.89)	1.20 (0.77, 1.86)	1.08 (0.67, 1.74)	1.17 (0.68, 2.02)
English-speaking Latino	1.72 (0.98, 3.02)	0.64 (0.32, 1.29)	1.29 (0.70, 2.37)	1.89 (0.96, 3.73)	0.98 (0.46, 2.11)	0.91 (0.40, 2.11)
Spanish-speaking Latino	1.08 (0.58, 2.01)	2.29 (1.25, 4.23)	1.20 (0.59, 2.46)	1.25 (0.71, 2.20)	0.43 (0.24, 0.76)	2.05 (0.90, 4.67)
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	0.73 (0.42, 1.28)	3.09 (1.49, 6.63)	1.10 (0.57, 2.13)	1.63 (0.83, 3.19)	0.46 (0.21, 1.00)	0.63 (0.30, 1.33)
White	1.43 (0.90, 1.82)	1.49 (0.87, 2.41)	1.47 (0.92, 2.18)	0.75 (0.46, 1.21)	1.38 (0.64, 2.22)	0.80 (0.48, 1.93)

Abbreviations: aOR, adjusted odds ratio; CI, confidence interval
^a Adjusted for age, gender (male, female), highest education level, income, marital status, chronic conditions (yes/no) and self-reported physical health; ORs were estimated using multinomial logistic regression where outcome was specified as weight loss, weight gain, or no change [reference group]; weight loss results are presented in Table 3 Separate models were run for each racial-ethnic group
Note: Bold font denote statistical significance p < 0.05
^b Lost income included loss of job or reduced hours, or loss of work-related income
^c Unmet expenses included not having enough money to meet daily needs or not enough money to pay monthly bills
^d Debt included using up all/most of savings, having no savings before the pandemic, or having gone into debt or increased debt during the pandemic
^e Unmet healthcare expenses included loss of health insurance, not having enough money to pay for healthcare, and not having enough money to pay for medications
^f Housing insecurity included not having a regular place to live and not having enough money to pay rent, mortgage, or housing costs
^g Food insecurity included being hungry but didn’t eat because not enough money for food

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