"Obese people are constantly fighting their physiology and the environment."
Prejudice towards obese people is rife among trainee health professionals but can be modified, new research has found.
The study, published in journal Obesity, says weight-based discrimination by the public has increased by 66% over the past decade.
Anti-fat prejudice among health professionals was found to be especially high in western nations, often exceeding that of the general population.
Scientists at the Universities of Manchester and Hawaii and Yale University suggested that medical and allied health professions need to present a balanced view of the causes of obesity when training young professionals to reduce this prejudice.
The team found that the prejudice could be either increased or decreased depending on the type of obesity training pre-service, health-professional students received.
Many misconceptions
Lead author Dr Kerry O’Brien, from The University of Manchester, said: “One reason for the high levels of obesity prejudice is that people only hear that obesity is due to poor diet and lack of exercise, which implies that obese people are just lazy and gluttonous, and therefore deserve criticism. But uncontrollable factors such as genes, the environment and neurophysiology, play an important role.
“Weight status is, to a great extent, inherited. It’s crucial that health professionals, such as nurses, doctors, dieticians and physical educators, are aware of these other influences, as well as their own potential prejudices, and don’t just blame the individual for their weight status."
O'Brien said those providing health services to obese people may become frustrated with patients when they do not lose weight following counselling and treatment, but the stats show that weight loss is extremely difficult to maintain long term.
"Obese people are constantly fighting their physiology and the environment. If professionals keep this in mind it may help in not stigmatising their clients.”
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