It would be odd to think that medical schools would stigmatize the most prevalent chronic disease that medical students will encounter. But stigmatizing obesity in medical schools is all too common, even today. Kofi Essel and colleagues published a study of the obesity bias observed by third year medical students at George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences.

These students were completing an extensive course on obesity. They observed that bias about obesity permeates healthcare. Moreover, they have concerns about how patients with obesity are treated in clinical settings.

Four Themes

From Essel’s analysis of these observations, four themes emerged. First was an undue preoccupation with body weight over health. Then, there was the bias for defining a patient’s worth by their body weight. From those two themes came a third – prevalence of harsh and overtly stigmatizing language to describe patients in discussions with colleagues. Finally, students related a sense of powerlessness to effect change or challenge this pervasive bias about obesity, despite feeling that it’s problematic.

“I’m just a medical student.”

Bias Permeating Medical Education and Healthcare

Essel et al observe that bias about obesity is present throughout medical education and, unsurprisingly then, in all of healthcare. Efforts to reduce it are in their infancy. They conclude:

“In light of our findings, early intervention in medical education is needed to address and reduce obesity bias in healthcare settings, with additional educational support for practicing providers in identification and attenuation of bias towards patients and families.”

Progress in reducing the health effects of obesity depend upon making change in this disturbing state of things in medical education.

Click here for this excellent new analysis and call to action. For further perspective, click here and here.

Tulane University Medical School, photograph by Infrogmation of New Orleans, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0