Implications of weight bias as a barrier to the treatment of Obesity

The obesity “epidemic” has become a significant factor in the current political and economic environment, particularly with regard to the reform of the healthcare system. Individuals who have been classified as obese face many health concerns, as well as discrimination within health care, education, and employment contexts. Mental health clinicians and other helping professionals may perpetuate implicit and explicit weight bias and clinical judgments may be impacted. In an effort to further explore the phenomenon of weight bias among the helping professions, quantitative and qualitative data from 79 members of the American Psychological Association (Division 12), the Academy of Eating Disorders (e.g., mental health clinicians, physicians, dieticians), and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies was collected. In addition to quantitative measures of implicit and explicit weight bias, participants were invited to provide narrative responses related to their knowledge of and attitudes toward a population defined as being overweight or obese. Quantitative analysis included frequency and rank order analyses. The participants' narrative responses were independently evaluated by coders for relevant themes; the researchers collaboratively examined the data for the most salient themes found in the responses to each question. Preliminary results indicate that the vignette portraying an overweight client elicited a greater number of eating disorder diagnoses. Women endorsed fewer negative attitudes towards individuals classified as obese. “Clinicians” were less likely to recommend “facilitate weight loss” as a specific treatment intervention. Further quantitative results and analyses of qualitative data will be presented, as well as implications for treatment and training.