A study shows that some obese people avoid medical appointments because they feel humiliated and discriminated against by staff.
- WHO estimates that the number of obese adults is over 650 million and 1.9 billion are overweight.
- The rise of teleconsultation during the Covid-19 epidemic has had the merit of reducing this feeling of fear of being judged among overweight people.
A number of medical professionals think their obese and overweight patients are “lazy, lack self-control, overindulge, hostile, dishonest, have poor hygiene, and don’t follow advice”… Here is the more than alarming finding made by researchers from University College London in their study published in the journal obesity.
Weight stigma
Thus, it appears that health care, including general practice, is one of the most common contexts for weight stigma. However, the impact on overweight people is particularly harmful. Indeed, not only does this divert them from the medical profession and demotivate them from being medically followed, which is nevertheless essential, but it even leads to weight gain in these patients who, ashamed, develop anxiety, reduce their physical activity and adopt poor eating habits. As the authors point out, weight stigma increases the risk of developing obesity and can reduce life expectancy, as it is associated with an almost 60% higher risk of mortality.
Lots of evidence
Dr Anastasia Kalea and her colleagues at University College London (UCL) analyzed 25 previous studies on “weight stigma”, carried out in different countries and involving 3,554 healthcare professionals. They found “a lot of evidence of this strong weight bias” among a wide range of health personnel, including doctors, nurses, dietitians, psychologists and even obesity specialists.
For example, reports The Guardiana GP will subconsciously show that he does not believe the patient is adhering to the regimen”eat less, exercise more” that he was asked to follow, because he does not lose weight. Or a nurse who lacks patience when having to use another scale to weigh the patient.
“The result is that patients do not return or delay their follow-up appointments, they avoid health care preventive services or cancel their appointments for fear of being stigmatized because of their weight.“confirms Ms. Kalea, associate professor in the division of medicine at UCL.
More sensitivity
The practice of doctors and nurses shaming their patients is so widespread that medical professionals need to be taught in school that excess weight is almost guaranteed in modern society and is not the fault of individuals.
The study underlines the importance of treating people with more sensitivity, according to the authors, and this requires the use of a more neutral vocabulary by the medical profession. Thus, we will speak ofa patient with obesity” and not “an obese patient“. We can talk “of a person who manages their weight”not who”has difficulty with his weight“
Tam Fry, president of the National Obesity Forum, an independent organization that raises awareness about obesity, recalls in The Guardian that “obesity has never been a personal problem“.”Health professionals need to understand that many overweight people are at a loss for the obesity-promoting environment in which they live. For example, they have to deal with the ultra-processed foods that advertising and marketing push them to eat.“, he specifies.
And this, especially since overweight people are often in a precarious economic situation and depend on this cheap but unhealthy food.
