Obesity Bias Amongst Medical Students
June 1, 2013Anti-obesity bias is steadily increasing in the United States but is it taking place in your own doctor’s office and in our medical schools?
According to a new study published in the Journal of Academic Medicine, that just may be the case. Researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. gave 310 third year medical students the Weight Implicit Association Test (IAT). The test measures an individual’s subconscious biases by the length of time it takes for them to associate a positive word with an image of a person who is either obese or thin. The report found that two out of five medical students are unknowing biased against obese people. While the study was limited to one medical school, the fact that the students are a diverse group from all over the world and of different cultures should not be lost.
Lead author of the study, Dr. David Miller, associate professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, states that obesity bias can affect clinical care and the doctor-patient relationship. The perception of obesity bias can affect a patient’s willingness to seek continued care with their primary health provider. Previous research supports Dr. Miller's insights as it was revealed in a study published in the journal Obesity that obese or overweight individuals are significantly more likely to repeatedly switch to different primary care doctors than individuals of what is deemed a normal weight.
The authors of the obesity bias study have concluded that it is necessary for medical schools to address weight-related biases and their potential impact on patient health care.