Addressing weight bias in medicine

You happen to be among the two-thirds of Americans with overweight and obesity (defined as a body mass index of 25 or greater), and you are just thrilled to go to your next doctor’s appointment, right? Wrong! Unfortunately, if you have a diagnosis of overweight or obesity, you might find the doctor’s office to be the least inviting place to be. Maybe you find that there are no chairs to accommodate you in the waiting room. When the medical staff takes your blood pressure, you might find that they struggle to find the right size cuff. You might feel as though you are weighed in a disrespectful fashion. Or maybe, when you bring up a medical issue with your doctor that is of significant concern, your doctor states that if you just “got your weight under control,” that this and all other issues would no longer be problematic. And finally, as you prepare to depart, your doctor tells you once more: “If you eat less and exercise more, you will lose weight.” Health consequences of weight bias Weight bias is pervasive in medicine, as communicated in a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The prevalence of weight bias in medicine may stem, at least in part, from minimal education about obesity in undergraduate and graduate medical education. And there is even less education about weight bias and stigma and its impact on the health of individuals who struggle with obesity. Obesity is a complex disease that cannot be minimized to the “calories ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health Source Type: blogs