Bias: obese vs. medical community

Today more than 21 of Americans has BMI index more than 30 kg /m2 (CDC 2004 . Results from the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES ) indicate that an estimated 65 percent of U .S . adults are either overweight or obese (CDC , 2004 . The NHANES survey also indicated that that an estimated 16 percent of children and adolescents ages 6-19 years are overweight . One of the objectives for the program Healthy people 2010 ' is the reducing of the prevalence of obesity among adults to less than 15 . Unfortunately , the epidemiology of

the obesity is still unfavorable . For example , in the Pennsylvania the frequency of obesity increased up to 21 ,4 , only several other states have higher obesity prevalence among adults

The obesity and obese persons became a focus of the public attention Some authors (R . M . Puhl , K . D . Brownell , 2003 B . Conway , A . Rene 2004 ) found that this attention could be caused by bias and the social stigmatization of the obese persons . Health care providers and other personnel of the health facilities are not exclusion . Consequences of bias such as isolation or social withdrawal could contribute to the exacerbation of obesity through psychological vulnerabilities that increase the likelihood of over-eating and sedentary activity . It is clear that bias , prejudice , and discrimination are part of everyday life for overweight individuals (R . M . Puhl , K . D . Brownell , 2003

The examples of the bias include discrimination in the job hiring (Wolf A , Corditz G , 1998 McGinnis J , Foege W , 1998 , negative attitudes about overweight patients in the health care facilities (Bray G Bouchard C , James W and Alpert M , Alexander J , 1998 Owens T , 2003 Schwartz MB et all , 2003 ) and in the schools and colleges (Datar A . et all , 2004 Brewis A , 2003 . For example , 28 of teachers in one study said that becoming obese is the worst thing that can happen to a person 24 of nurses said they are 'repulsed ' by obese persons and controlling for income and grades , parents provide less college support for their overweight children than for their thin children (Brownell K Puhl R , 2003

Even specialists in obesity fall prey to negative associations when working with obese patients (M . Dittmann , 2004 . The American Academy of Family Physicians surveyed 324 members and found that 39 percent believed that obese patients were lazy , and two thirds thought that obese patients lacked self-control . Other surveys of physicians attitudes showed that physicians often described their obese patients as "weak-willed "ugly " and "awkward

Wang SS , Brownell KD and Wadden TA . from the Department of Psychology in Yale University investigated (2004 ) the internalization of anti-fat bias among overweight individuals across a variety of attitudes and stereotypes . Their studies were conducted using the Implicit Association Test (IAT , a performance-based measure of bias , to examine beliefs among overweight individuals about 'fat people ' vs 'thin people . They found that unlike other minority group members , overweight individuals did not appear to hold more favorable attitudes toward in-group members .Schwartz MB et all . from Yale...