This blog was inspired by my paper discussing the
content and accuracy/quality of that content on weight loss and weight
acceptance blogs, so I figured I should look at one of the issues commonly
addressed (indirectly, usually, but sometimes directly) in the fatosphere.
The fatosphere, first
off, is like a pocket of the blogosphere dedicated to fat acceptance. It's
pretty fun and I learned a lot about perspectives and experiences very
different from mind. From an anthropological view, I had a great time writing
that paper.
This week's post is
dedicated to thin privilege, and I will be looking at it through the lens of
physician bias.
Now, I'm not here to
degrade the work of any doctor. I applaud anyone who works in the healthcare
system to improve the lives of other human beings and, in many cases, to save
some of those lives. So far, this blog has been just me but I have dreams of a
grander future and I do not want to give the impression that doctors of any
kind are bigots by nature.
But...
Several studies(1,
2, 3, 4) have found a significant weight bias among physicians, even
those who research or work with obese patients. Some results have suggested
this negative bias extends to other institutionalized forms of discrimination,
including adoption proceedings(4). There is compelling research to
show we can use social pressure to change such biases among physicians(5),
but the unsettling truth is that it is there in the first place.
Similarly,
while there is evidence to suggest that moderate weight loss can alleviate
chronic illnesses like hypertension (a precursor to heart disease) and
hyperlipidemia(6) and diabetes(7, 8), one study showed
some doctors will treat the chronic illness instead of the obesity(2).
Schwartz and
colleagues used the Implicit-Associations Test to examine the subconscious
biases of clinicians and researchers attending an international obesity
conference and found a statistically significant amount (p<.0001) maintained
an anti-fat bias(9). These are people who understand obesity better
than any other doctor, they know it has multiple causes, and a significant
number still have an anti-fat bias.
Is it clear why I put
the disclaimer about doctors at the top? It's important to remember that the
IAT is an *implicit* associations test. No one started it thinking fat people
were lazy and worthless, at least not consciously. The point of this is that
this stigma extends so deeply in many Western societies that even the obesity
experts may still have a bias. This may interact with the fact that their
job is often figuring out how to reduce obesity, but it does not justify or
explain any bias.
Where does biology or
biomedicine come in to this? Well, it doesn't. By itself. But in the healthcare
system where such strong bias exists, where health professionals (doctors,
nurses, researchers, etc.) who are entrusted with the care of the sick may
implicitly avoid the necessary treatment out of a subconscious bias, these
problems will be nearly unsolvable. When less than 50% of physicians feel
confident in their ability to prescribe weight loss programs and only 14%
believe they are successful in treating obesity(2), how can we expect to fight
the "obesity epidemic" and help those who are unhealthy and
obese?
We can't. And this is
why healthcare needs more anthropology.
More on that next week.
Cheers,
J.G.
1) Schwartz, M. B., Chambliss, H. O. N., Brownell,
K. D., Blair, S. N., & Billington, C. (2003). Weight bias among health
professionals specializing in obesity. Obesity research, 11(9),
1033-1039.
2) Foster, G. D., Wadden, T. A., Makris,
A. P., Davidson, D., Sanderson, R. S., Allison, D. B., & Kessler, A.
(2003). Primary care physicians’ attitudes about obesity and its
treatment. Obesity Research, 11(10), 1168-1177.
3) Jay, M., Kalet, A., Ark, T., McMacken,
M., Messito, M. J., Richter, R., & Gillespie, C. (2009). Physicians'
attitudes about obesity and their associations with competency and specialty: A
cross-sectional study. BMC Health Services Research, 9(1),
106.
4) Puhl, R., & Brownell, K. D. (2001).
Bias, discrimination, and obesity. Obesity research, 9(12),
788-805.
5) Puhl, R. M., Schwartz, M. B., &
Brownell, K. D. (2005). Impact of perceived consensus on stereotypes about
obese people: a new approach for reducing bias. Health Psychology, 24(5),
517.
6) Goldstein, D. J. (1992). Beneficial health
effects of modest weight loss.International journal of obesity and related
metabolic disorders: journal of the International Association for the Study of
Obesity, 16(6), 397-415.
7) Lifshitz, F., & Hall, J. G. (2002).
Reduction in the incidence of type II diabetes with lifestyle intervention or
metformin. J Med, 346, 393-403.
8) Knowler, W. C., Fowler, S. E., Hamman,
R. F., Christophi, C. A., Hoffman, H. J., Brenneman, A. T., ... & Steinke,
S. C. (2009). 10-year follow-up of diabetes incidence and weight loss in the
Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study. Lancet, 374(9702),
1677-1686.
9) Schwartz, M. B., Chambliss, H. O. N., Brownell,
K. D., Blair, S. N., & Billington, C. (2003). Weight bias among health
professionals specializing in obesity. Obesity research, 11(9), 1033-1039.