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Med Students Unaware of Their Bias Against Obese Patients
An anonymous reader sends news of a study which found that "two out of five medical students have an unconscious bias against obese people." The study, published in the Journal of Academic Medicine (abstract) examined med students from many different cultural and geographical backgrounds.
"The researchers used a computer program called the Weight Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measures students’ unconscious preferences for 'fat' or 'thin' individuals. Students also answered a survey assessing their conscious weight-related preferences. The authors determined if the students were aware of their bias by seeing if their IAT results matched their stated preferences. Overall, 39 percent of medical students had a moderate to strong unconscious anti-fat bias as compared to 17 percent who had a moderate to strong anti-thin bias. Less than 25 percent of students were aware of their biases. 'Because anti-fat stigma is so prevalent and a significant barrier to the treatment of obesity, teaching medical students to recognize and mitigate this bias is crucial to improving the care for the two-thirds of American adults who are now overweight or obese,' Miller said. 'Medical schools should address weight bias as part of a comprehensive obesity curriculum.'"
I'm not unaware. I know exactly what I think about fat people and It's not good.
A health care professional can be expected to have a bias regarding healthy vs unhealthy life choices.
No shit. That is not what they mean by bias in this study. RTFA:
“Bias can affect clinical care and the doctor-patient relationship, and even a patient’s willingness or desire to go see their physician, so it is crucial that we try to deal with any bias during medical school,” said David Miller, M.D., associate professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest Baptist and lead author of the study.
“Previous research has shown that on average, physicians have a strong anti-fat bias similar to that of the general population. Doctors are more likely to assume that obese individuals won’t follow treatment plans, and they are less likely to respect obese patients than average weight patients,” Miller said.
Let me ponder this for a minute.
A health care professional can be expected to have a bias regarding healthy vs unhealthy life choices. Being fat indicates that a person has made one HELL of a lot of unhealthy choices. Like - every single day, he eats to much.
Alternately they have hypothyroidism, for example, as a result of Hashimotos. It could also be Prader-Willi syndrome, or Bardet-Biedl syndrome. There are other genetic factors and diseases which can also result in obesity. Candida Albicans infections of the gut have also been implicated. There are also medications which can result in obesity. Prednisone, which is often used to treat very severe allergies, and also as an anti-rejection drug following organ transplantation, or to treat autoimmune disorders, is one. Others include antidepressants, seizure medications, and certain high blood pressure drugs, such as atenolol and metoprolol (both beta blockers).