Monash Expert: Reducing weight stigma in healthcare
Monash University
Reducing weight stigma in healthcare is critical to supporting and improving the health of patients and decreasing the risk of adverse outcomes. Published in the Australian Journal of General Practice, a new paper, Supporting healthcare professionals to reduce weight stigma, aims to improve the situation.
A team of researchers from Monash University and other universities and organisations from The Obesity Collective* consulted with community members, healthcare professionals and policymakers to codesign guidance for reducing weight stigma in healthcare.
Their recommendations included targeting individual healthcare professionals and involving clear, practical guidelines and training that leverage the notions of ‘do no harm’, improving practice and recognising biases. They also found such strategies must be couched in broader structural approaches to weight stigma reduction.
Available to comment:
First author Dr Briony Hill, Deputy Head, Social Care Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University
Contact details: +61 3 9903 4840 or media@monash.edu
- Health psychology
- Weight gain in pregnancy
- Weight stigma before, during and after pregnancy
- Weight stigma generally
The following can be attributed to Dr Hill:
“Weight stigma is highly prevalent in healthcare settings such as general practice and is extremely harmful to patient wellbeing. While we know that most healthcare professionals do not intend to cause harm, they may be harbouring negative attitudes and biases towards their larger-bodied patients, potentially impacting the care they provide.
“The Obesity Collective*, Australia’s Peak body for obesity in Australia, conducted a co-design workshop to develop education to help healthcare professionals reduce weight stigma. Their work has generated key recommendations that all healthcare professionals can consider to end weight stigma.
“To reduce and ultimately end weight stigma in healthcare, approaches supporting both individual clinicians and the health system more broadly are needed. Healthcare professional training should focus on clear and practical guidelines that support them to ‘do no harm’, improve their practice, and recognise and address their own biases.
“Structural measures to eliminate weight stigma must address the physical environment, develop policies that support weight stigma reduction, and foster transdisciplinary action to optimise patient and health system solutions.”
*This paper was co-authored by members of The Obesity Collective Stigma Expert Group, including Dr Briony Hill, Associate Professor Xochitl de la Piedad Garcia, Dr Joanne Rathbone, Dr Zanab Malik, Dr Elizabeth Holmes-Truscott, Dr Blake Lawrence, Dr James Kite, Ms Kelly Cooper, Dr Timothy Broady, and Professor John Dixon.
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