Yes, We Can Reduce Weight Bias in Healthcare
To make a list of really hard problems in health and obesity care is easy. It is a daunting list. Inequities, access to care, explosive growth in costs, and byzantine payment systems are just a few of the issues that come to mind. But a new paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine suggests that the vexing problem of weight bias in healthcare is one that health systems can indeed reduce or resolve.
Led by Amanda Velazquez, a group of researchers and patient advocates developed and tested a four-hour continuing medical education intervention that appears to have a significant positive effect.
Apparent Effects
For healthcare professionals who completed the training, pre/post testing showed significant increases in empathy and confidence in caring for people with obesity. They reported holding fewer negative stereotypes about higher weight individuals after their participation. Perhaps even more interesting was the comparison to professionals who did not participate. The professionals who completed the program were more likely to diagnose obesity and refer patients for obesity care.
Given the importance of obesity for health, this is certainly a win.
Empathy, Self-Awareness, Blame, and Culture
The intervention was rather straightforward. It focused on four dimensions thought to influence weight bias: empathy for persons with obesity, self-awareness of one’s own biases, attribution of blame, and a bias-free culture.
Certainly, this is just one test with a group of 307 healthcare professionals. So, by no means is it the final word on reducing weight bias in healthcare. But it does tell us that yes, we can reduce weight bias in healthcare. We have a good start on the path forward.
Click here for the study and here for further perspective on dismantling weight bias in healthcare.
The People, woodcut by Kathe Kollwitz / WikiArt
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December 28, 2024
