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.'"

Comments

Re:Bias sounds reasonable.

[Cinder6]

My brother-in-law is a nurse. He says that the overwhelming majority of his patients are in the hospital due to poor lifestyle choices, with obesity being the most common cause of the illness. Naturally, some people are obese due to something outside of their control, but not most. I can see it being frustrating helping a patient who wouldn't be there if they'd just done a better job taking care of themselves.

Furthermore, it's my understanding that providing care to a skinny person is easier than giving it to an obese person for a number of reasons. Combine that with the fact that we're essentially programmed to prefer skinny people, and it's obvious that there would be a bias.

Does that mean that I think obese people should receive subpar treatment? Hell no. You signed up for the job, now go and do it. I just get tired of studies that confirm something everyone already knows.