Objective Weight‐biased attitudes and views held by health care professionals can have a negative impact on the patient‐provider relationship and the provision of care, but studies have found mixed results about the extent and nature of bias, which warrants a review of the evidence. Methods A systematic review and random‐effects meta‐analysis were conducted by including studies up to January 12, 2021. Results A total of 41 studies met inclusion criteria, with 17 studies providing sufficient data to be meta‐analyzed. A moderate pooled effect (standardized mean difference = 0.66; 95% CI: 0.37‐0.96) showed that health care professionals demonstrate implicit weight bias. Health care professionals also report explicit weight bias on the Fat Phobia Scale, Antifat Attitudes Scale, and Attitudes Towards Obese Persons Scale. Findings show that medical doctors, nurses, dietitians, psychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, podiatrists, and exercise physiologists hold implicit and/or explicit weight‐biased attitudes toward people with obesity. A total of 27 different outcomes were used to measure weight bias, and the overall quality of evidence was rated as very low. Conclusions Future research needs to adopt more robust research methods to improve the assessment of weight bias and to inform future interventions to address weight bias among health care professionals.

Research has consistently shown that control is critical to psychological functioning, with perceived lack of control considered to play a crucial role in the manifestation of symptoms in psychiatric disorders. In a model of behavioral control based on non-human animal work, Maier et al. (2006) posited that the presence of control activates areas of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), which in turn inhibit the normative stress response in the dorsal raphe nucleus and amygdala. To test Maier’s model in humans, we investigated the effects of control over potent aversive stimuli by presenting video clips of snakes to 21 snake phobics who were otherwise healthy with no comorbid psychopathologies. Based on prior research documenting that disrupted neural processing during the anticipation of adverse events can be influenced by different forms of cognitive processing such as perceptions of control, analyses focused on the anticipatory activity preceding the videos. We found that phobics exhibited greater vmPFC activity during the anticipation of snake videos when they had control over whether the videos were presented as compared to when they had no control over the presentation of the videos. In addition, observed functional connectivity between the vmPFC and the amygdala is consistent with previous work documenting vmPFC inhibition of the amygdala. Our results provide evidence to support the extension of Maier’s model of behavioral control to include anticipatory function in humans.

BackgroundAlong with reduced levels of physical activity, older Australian's mean energy consumption has increased. Now over 60% of older Australians are considered overweight or obese. This study aims to confirm if a low-cost, accessible physical activity and nutrition program can improve levels of physical activity and diet of insufficiently active 60-70 year-olds.Methods/DesignThis 12-month home-based randomised controlled trial (RCT) will consist of a nutrition and physical activity intervention for insufficiently active people aged 60 to 70 years from low to medium socio-economic areas. Six-hundred participants will be recruited from the Australian Federal Electoral Role and randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 300) and control (n = 300) groups. The study is based on the Social Cognitive Theory and Precede-Proceed Model, incorporating voluntary cooperation and self-efficacy. The intervention includes a specially designed booklet that provides participants with information and encourages dietary and physical activity goal setting. The booklet will be supported by an exercise chart, calendar, bi-monthly newsletters, resistance bands and pedometers, along with phone and email contact. Data will be collected over three time points: pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention and 6-months post-study.DiscussionThis trial will provide valuable information for community-based strategies to improve older adults' physical activity and dietary intake. The project will provide guidelines for appropriate sample recruitment, and the development, implementation and evaluation of a minimal intervention program, as well as information on minimising barriers to participation in similar programs.Trial RegistrationAustralian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12609000735257

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Word reading is considered a highly over-learned task. If true, then practice should have no effect on its performance or associated functional brain anatomy. We tested this hypothesis in two experiments of skilled readers repeatedly reading the same list of nouns (1 session, 10 runs). In Experiment 1 we used fMRI to monitor the changes in brain activity. In Experiment 2 we recorded voice onset latency reaction times. Neither experiment showed changes as an effect of practice. In a third experiment, Experiment 3, we examined the behavioral effect of prolonged practice on the word association task of verb generation for which reading nouns aloud has served as a control. Both short (1 session, 10 runs) and long term (15 days, 150 runs) effects were noted providing a new perspective on functional anatomical differences between word reading and verb generation previously noted after short periods of practice.