Obesity and Health Practices

Weight stigma in healthcare refers to the negative attitudes, assumptions, and discriminatory behaviors that patients with obesity encounter from clinicians, institutions, and public health messaging. Research in this area examines how physician bias shapes clinical decision-making, how stigmatizing encounters deter patients from seeking care, and how internalized weight bias undermines the psychological well-being of people managing obesity. These dynamics matter because stigma can directly worsen health outcomes, creating a feedback loop that complicates standard obesity treatment and burdens primary care practice. Active questions include how best to train clinicians to recognize and counter their own biases, and whether public health campaigns can promote healthy behaviors without inadvertently reinforcing cultural prejudice against larger bodies.

Works

53,948

Total citations

624,339

Keywords

Obesity StigmaWeight BiasHealth CareDiscriminationPublic HealthPhysician Attitudes