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Pediatric healthcare professionals' attitudes and beliefs about weight stigma: A descriptive study
1UMass Chan Medical School Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing, 55 N Lake Ave, Worcester, MA, United States.
Insights
Pediatric healthcare providers show significant weight bias but are willing to address it. This study highlights their readiness to implement interventions for reducing weight stigma in patient care.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric healthcare
- Medical ethics
- Public health
Background:
- Weight-based stigma from healthcare providers affects children.
- Existing efforts to mitigate weight stigma in pediatrics are limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To measure pediatric healthcare professionals' attitudes and beliefs regarding weight stigma.
- To identify stigma reduction interventions favored by these providers.
Main Methods:
- Utilized validated instruments for implicit and explicit weight bias.
- Assessed provider attitudes and beliefs via a custom questionnaire.
- Employed ANOVA, chi-square, and Spearman's rank analyses.
Main Results:
- Providers demonstrated moderate-to-high levels of implicit and explicit weight bias.
- Implicit bias correlated with years in practice and occupation.
- Explicit bias correlated with awareness and readiness for action.
Conclusions:
- Pediatric healthcare providers exhibit weight biases but are motivated to mitigate them.
- Findings can guide the development of interventions to reduce healthcare-based weight bias and enhance pediatric care quality.
Purpose:
Children face weight-based stigma from their healthcare providers at a disconcerting rate, and efforts to mitigate this have been scant. This study aimed to quantify pediatric healthcare professionals' attitudes and beliefs about weight stigma and to determine stigma reduction interventions that are most supported by pediatric healthcare providers.
Design And Methods:
Participants completed two validated instruments which measured implicit and explicit weight bias, respectively. They then completed a researcher-designed questionnaire to assess their attitudes and beliefs about weight stigma, and demographic questions. ANOVA models were used to examine associations between bias measures and participant characteristics, chi-square analyses were used to examine associations between questionnaire responses and participant characteristics, and Spearman's rank was used to determine correlations between weight bias and questionnaire responses.
Results:
Participants exhibited moderate-to-high levels of implicit and explicit weight bias (mean Implicit Association Test score = 0.59, mean Crandall Anti-Fat Attitudes Score = 38.95). Associations were noted between implicit bias and years in practice (p < 0.05), and implicit bias and occupation (p < 0.05). There was a significant correlation between explicit bias and multiple questionnaire items, suggesting that healthcare providers with greater weight bias are aware of those biases and are ready to take action to address them.
Conclusion:
Though pediatric healthcare exhibit weight-based biases, they are invested in taking steps to mitigate these biases and their impact on patients.
Practice Implications:
The results of this study can inform the design of future interventions that aim to reduce healthcare-based weight bias, thus improving the quality of pediatric healthcare.
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