REVEALING THE FAT PHOBIA AMONG HEALTH CARE PRACTITIONERS – A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37268/mjphm/vol.25/no.1/art.3021Keywords:
fat phobia, fat phobia scale, obesity, health care practitioners, pre-health care studentsAbstract
Discrimination towards obese people is very common in health care settings. After family members, the second most common source of weight bias is physicians. This study aims to explore the existing literature about health care practitioners’ negative attitudes towards obese people (measured via fat phobia scale) by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis. PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases were searched to find articles related to our topic. Article screening, systematic review, and meta-analysis were conducted and, finally, data extraction and quality assessment were performed. Pooled analysis of 18 studies revealed a mean fat phobia scale score of 3.48, which reflected the negative attitudes reported in most of the studies. Meta-analysis of three studies compared health care professionals (n=673) to students (n=657) and showed an increased frequency of negative attitudes among health care providers compared with students (p = 0.004, 95% CI = -0.18 to -0.08). Other factors, such as gender, BMI, and age, may also influence fat phobia. The study concludes that the prevalent negative attitudes of health care providers may impede the success of obesity treatment.
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