With any new year comes health advertisements that are often geared toward weight loss. Unfortunately, the weight loss ads today continue to promote a stigma that damages heavier people and causes doctors to provide lower quality care to these labeled patients.
There is no reason why any patient should receive more or less care than others solely based on their weight. However, patients with higher weight receive less time with their physicians, and the physicians report being reluctant to perform certain exams on their patients who have a higher body mass index, a highly outdated tool that is still used to categorize body sizes.
According to BMC Medicine, those who are obese or overweight often receive “poorer care” and have “worsening outcomes.”
“Weight stigma is likely to drive weight gain and poor health and thus should be eradicated,” according to BMC Medicine. “This effort can begin by training compassionate and knowledgeable healthcare providers who will deliver better care and ultimately lessen the negative effects of weight stigma.”
According to Ravishly, an overweight woman lost weight because of an illness, but her physicians just “brushed it off” and told her to “keep up the good work,” not realizing that there was an underlying health issue. Many physicians report that they spend less time with heavier patients as they see it as a “waste of time” and that they may also be less likely to order diagnostic testing for their heavier patients.
Regardless of a person’s size or weight, society and healthcare professionals should not be judged based on appearances. Bethany Wheeler, MS, RD, LD, is an Atlanta-based dietitian who is working to fight against weight stigma in healthcare.
“The stigma is really against fatness … and against bodies that do not fit societal ideals,” Wheeler said. “We have been conditioned we should fear fatness and we should fear difference. The fear of fatness, specifically, underlies so many of our nutrition recommendations and healthcare guidelines despite having so much data on why using BMI [terms like “obesity”] are both invalid and harmful.”
She concluded that “if we truly care about the health of human beings like we say we do as healthcare providers, we need to really challenge our biases around bodies and be willing to accept that many of us have been taught about health is rooted in discrimination and oppression.”
Society and healthcare professionals need to take action against the weight stigma and change their biases. The current stigma will take years, or possibly decades, to eradicate, but by changing the current way of thinking and practicing, medicine and society will become more accepting of bigger bodies.
