Obese? Your doctor may have less respect for you
Anyone who has struggled with their weight knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of fat jokes. Despite a national obesity epidemic, our society isn't particularly sensitive to overweight people. Doctors included.
A new study from Johns Hopkins researchers found that physicans actually have less respect for their obese patients. In fact, in a study of 238 Baltimore patients, researchers found the higher their body mass index, or BMI, the less respect they received from their doctors. Ouch.
For 40 years, studies have documented health care providers' negative bias toward overweight people, the new study states. Some past research has found that obesity was a characteristic that elicited "negative feelings" among doctors. Others found that health care professionals associate obesity with negative terms such as lazy, incompetent and ignorant. Wow. And still other studies have found doctors are ambivalent about treating obesity.
But Hopkins researchers say this new study, appearing in the November issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, is among the first to examine doctors' direct attitudes toward their obese patients.
Beyond the obvious reasons, here's why respect from one's doctor is important: when physicians respect the people they care for, patients get more information out of their doctors, and one would hope, make better health decisions.
I'd bet that patients can likely sense that lack of respect and I would expect it would have bad health consequences. I mean, if you get the feeling your doctor thinks you're a lazy fat slug, what's the likelihood that you would go back to him or her for your care?
Researchers say more study is needed about how these negative attitudes affect the quality of patient care.
"If a doctor has a patient with obesity and has low respect for that person, is the doctor less likely to recommend certain types of weight loss programs or to send her for cancer screening?" said Dr. Mary Margaret Huizinga, an author of the study. "We need to understand these things better."
And beyond, doctors need to be taught about obesity bias and how to avoid discrimination. For now, in med school, there's little discussion about these negative attitudes, Huizinga said.
photo: AFP/Getty images
Comments
This is very true. Doctors have less respect for heavy patients. My Doctor is reed-thin and a runner and though little is actually said his demeanor speaks volume. Of course, the thin docs rarely complain of their fat wallets gratis of their hefty patients and their issues.
Posted by: ruth | October 26, 2009 8:42 AM
As an obese person myself, I can agree with this statement completely. I am lazy and and overeat and, deep down, 99% of us "fatties" know that I am telling the truth. We eat too much and we don't get off out butts enough. One other thing is that I don't blame doctors for feeling the way they do. If I was in their shoes I would probably feel the same way. I myself discriminate against fat people too, even though I am also fat. I am trying to lose it all now by eating healthy and doing 30 min of exercise per day.
Posted by: Bob | October 26, 2009 8:58 AM
Obesity is an outcome, the process that gets them there is unhealthy attitudes. First you think, then you act. If you find yourself simply acting, then it's a habit. Breaking habits are hard and as a society, we've gotten too accustomed to things being easy. There is no easy way to being healthy. It's about hard work and thinking healthfully. If you're not prepared to roll up your sleeves, get tough and do the hard work, the outcome is going to be obesity. Have you ever seen an obese runner? If you have, it won't be for long. See what happens on "Biggest Loser"? Hard work...we've gotten to use to things being easy.
Posted by: Bob | October 27, 2009 1:22 PM
Come on Ruth--I think the study should be reversed--and it will reveal fat patients resent their thin doctors. Yet, if doctors are actually fat, the fat patients themselves will use that as an excuse not to listen to their docs. Can't have it both ways. The doctor's weight has no bearing on the issue of your health. Get in to see your docs--evince interest, try compliance for a change, work hard and earn their respect. It is like everything else in life. If you are perceived as a listless overeating whiner or excuse monger, who weighs in the same each time you are at your doctor's office, or you are adding ever more inches to your waistline, your doctor cannot possibly respect you for your intransigence. I myself am tired of the lies and the bland
helplessness of my obese patients. Something has got to give folks. It is usually your knees or your heart. As for obese patients filling their doctors pockets--you're kidding. Have you checked your insurance payments lately lovely Ruth? A pittance my love, is what they pay your doctors today. In fact all patients think the medical profession is supposed to be so noble that doctors must live on thin air and gruel. Meantime doctors' overhead has escalated into the stratosphere. As for the paperwork it can never be done. My obese patients take up the most time. They can never pay me enough for the cerebral taxation that I suffer to care for them. Each has at least 10 pathologies. They always want excuse forms--for the employer, for the airlines to give them two seats instead of one, for the sick days they want, for disability, lengthy letters to gastric by pass surgeons, to life insurance that won't issue a policy quickly, to health insurance to make sure obesity does not become a preexisting condition for exclusion--so on and so forth, endless grunt work--and docs are supposed to smile through all of this, take 40 dollars per visit, get accused of being greedy and also exude respect? Granted I love my obese patients, not because they fill my coffers with money, but because they are genuinely self deprecating, humorous and fine people but that does not mean I am going to stand by and see my colleagues bashed for showing exasperation with the obduracy that goes hand in hand with obesity.
A doctor
Posted by: Anonymous | October 27, 2009 6:14 PM
I don't think a doctor should loose respect for his obese patients. I have hypothyroidism, I exercise every day, I don't eat much and still I am obese at 173 lbs. I have this weight for at least 20 years. Not everyone is obese by choice. These doctors should go learn more about human beings .
Posted by: Marie L Dorismond | November 11, 2009 12:47 PM