07-18-2015, 11:43 AM
The first time Dawn Jett met with a cardiologist
in Las Vegas, the doctor didn't introduce
himself, shake her hand or review her files.
Instead, he looked at her and asked, "Why are
you fat?" remembers Jett, 39, who made the
appointment to check on her heart murmur, which she has had since childhood. Her
response? "I just woke up this morning and
decided to be fat." But inside, Jett says, "I was
very uncomfortable." It's no secret that some health care providers hold biases against patients who are overweight or obese.
A 2009 study in the Journal of General Medicine, for instance, found that the higher the patient's body mass index, the less respect the physician reported having for him or her. And it's not just physicians: A study presented last year at the American Association of Nurse Practitioners' annual meeting found that more than half of the 358 nurses surveyed endorsed statements such as "overweight people are not as good as others" and "overweight people have family issues," even though about that same percentage was overweight or obese themselves.
"In the medical field, you're supposed to do no
harm, and when you're treating people this way, you are doing harm," says Jett, who's 274 pounds and serves as vice president of a National Association to Advance Fat
Acceptance chapter in the Las Vegas area.
However, most clinicians' biases are more
subtle, says Dr. Kimberly Gudzune,
an assistant professor of medicine at Johns
Hopkins Medicine who studies how obesity
affects the patient-physician relationship.
"[Physicians] may not endorse these overtly negative attitudes," she says, "but if [they] still
harbor these subconscious biases that may
influence how [they] really interact and engage
with people." And that can affect patient care, her research has found. In a 2013 study analyzing 208 patients' appointments with 39 primary care providers, Gudzune and colleagues found that while physicians delivered the same information to overweight and obese patients, they built significantly less "emotional rapport" with them.
That's a problem, since empathy is associated with a variety of positive outcomes for patients and physicians, Gudzune says. "If you think about patients with obesity, counseling on lifestyle and weight loss are really critical. If
we're not making that connection, our counseling might not be as effective in these folks," she says.
It's not just overweight and obese patients who are at risk for comprised care based on their
looks. Underweight patients can be unfairly judged too, says Jett, whose mom dropped to 76 pounds before physicians diagnosed her with hyperthyroidism. "They thought she was a drug addict, an alcoholic, a bulimic before they did the first test," Jett says. "Sizeism happens on both ends of the scale."
Read Full Story Here
in Las Vegas, the doctor didn't introduce
himself, shake her hand or review her files.
Instead, he looked at her and asked, "Why are
you fat?" remembers Jett, 39, who made the
appointment to check on her heart murmur, which she has had since childhood. Her
response? "I just woke up this morning and
decided to be fat." But inside, Jett says, "I was
very uncomfortable." It's no secret that some health care providers hold biases against patients who are overweight or obese.
A 2009 study in the Journal of General Medicine, for instance, found that the higher the patient's body mass index, the less respect the physician reported having for him or her. And it's not just physicians: A study presented last year at the American Association of Nurse Practitioners' annual meeting found that more than half of the 358 nurses surveyed endorsed statements such as "overweight people are not as good as others" and "overweight people have family issues," even though about that same percentage was overweight or obese themselves.
"In the medical field, you're supposed to do no
harm, and when you're treating people this way, you are doing harm," says Jett, who's 274 pounds and serves as vice president of a National Association to Advance Fat
Acceptance chapter in the Las Vegas area.
However, most clinicians' biases are more
subtle, says Dr. Kimberly Gudzune,
an assistant professor of medicine at Johns
Hopkins Medicine who studies how obesity
affects the patient-physician relationship.
"[Physicians] may not endorse these overtly negative attitudes," she says, "but if [they] still
harbor these subconscious biases that may
influence how [they] really interact and engage
with people." And that can affect patient care, her research has found. In a 2013 study analyzing 208 patients' appointments with 39 primary care providers, Gudzune and colleagues found that while physicians delivered the same information to overweight and obese patients, they built significantly less "emotional rapport" with them.
That's a problem, since empathy is associated with a variety of positive outcomes for patients and physicians, Gudzune says. "If you think about patients with obesity, counseling on lifestyle and weight loss are really critical. If
we're not making that connection, our counseling might not be as effective in these folks," she says.
It's not just overweight and obese patients who are at risk for comprised care based on their
looks. Underweight patients can be unfairly judged too, says Jett, whose mom dropped to 76 pounds before physicians diagnosed her with hyperthyroidism. "They thought she was a drug addict, an alcoholic, a bulimic before they did the first test," Jett says. "Sizeism happens on both ends of the scale."
Read Full Story Here
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