Vets Show “Weight Bias” Against Obese Dogs And Their Owners

By guest blogger Ananya Ak The concept of weight bias or “fatphobia”, the social stigma around obesity, has been around for quite a while. Studies have shown that such stigma is present even among medical professionals, which negatively impacts quality of care for patients with obesity. Over the years, there have been several instances of doctors attributing medical symptoms to obesity when the symptoms were actually caused by something more serious, like a tumour. But what about social stigma towards obese pets? Over 50% of cats and dogs in the USA are obese and, like humans, pets with obesity have a higher risk of metabolic, respiratory and other diseases. A new paper in the International Journal of Obesity examines whether the same weight bias that affects the delivery of healthcare in humans is prevalent among pet doctors as well. The investigation, conducted by a team led by Rebecca Pearl at the University of Pennsylvania, involved two online studies exploring the attitudes of the participants towards obese and lean dogs, and the treatment recommendations they gave the dogs for hypothetical symptoms. One of the studies was conducted on 205 veterinarians and the other on 103 veterinary students, with the methodology remaining identical for both the studies. The studies were done in two parts. In the first part, the participants were each randomly shown one of four images featuring either a lean dog and lean owners, an obese dog and lean owners, a lean dog and obese ow...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Comparative guest blogger Health Source Type: blogs