Obese Women's Perceptions of Their Physicians' Weight Management Attitudes and Practices

Abstract

The last finding helps allay concerns that obese patients are routinely treated disrespectfully by physicians when discussing weight. The challenge, however, for primary care physicians appears to be providing patients better assistance with weight management.

Weight and its relationship to adolescent perceptions of their providers (WRAP): A qualitative and quantitative assessment of teen weight-related preferences and concerns

“…This suggests the importance of continuity of care, particularly in an adolescent population. Our findings differ somewhat from those of Freed et al [16], who found that teens' satisfaction with care was related to having been to a specific clinic before, but did not identify an association between satisfaction and having seen a particular provider before; and Wadden et al [12], who found no associations between satisfaction and years with a physician or number of physician visits per year for obese adult women.Most teens were pleased with their health care and appeared to demonstrate a high degree of confidence in their care. This was consistent with previous studies in teenage priorities for general health care [17,19]; however, our subjects' responses emphasized the importance of privacy and confidentiality, and expressed concern about providers that lack compassion or sensitivity to the comfort of the physical exam.…”

“…Health care providers, nurses, and medical students have been reported to perceive obese adult patients as lazy and lacking selfcontrol [8,9] and to believe they are less likely to comply with prescribed treatment regimens than patients of normal weight [10,11]. Based upon these findings, it is perhaps not surprising that many overweight adults report that physicians do not understand the extent to which overweight causes difficulty in their lives [12]. It has also been suggested that poor patientprovider dynamics might contribute to the lower rates of compliance with preventive and follow-up health care in overweight adults [13][14][15].…”

“…Educating parents, particularly mothers, about how best to inform their children about healthy eating may be valuable in teaching teens about healthy nutrition and attitudes about body size as they grow and develop. The data further support the need for encouraging a partnership between the health care provider and parents regarding nutrition and weight concerns.A previous study in OW adults [12] found that over two-thirds of participants reported their health care provider had never addressed weight control or only addressed weight control "once-in-a-while." Our data suggest that adolescent health care providers are readily discussing weight, diet, and exercise with teens-79% of OW adolescents noted that their provider discussed their weight with them.…”

Weighing the care: patients' perceptions of physician care as a function of gender and weight

“…This may reflect the fact that physicians' biases toward obese patients are less extreme than previously thought and/or that, to some extent, physicians can modulate the overt feelings and behaviors they express toward stigmatized patients. 19,51 The gender differences found in the current results, however, require a more complex explanation. Mounting evidence suggests that women are particularly prone to the ill effects of obesity stigmatization.…”

Estigma de obesidad, su impacto en las víctimas y en los Equipos de Salud: una revisión de la literatura

“…Asimismo, el estigma de obesidad que tienen los profesionales de la salud podría estar asociado con el tiempo dedicado a los pacientes, la empatía, la calidad de las interacciones, el optimismo respecto a la mejora del paciente y la voluntad e intención de proporcionar ayuda 43 . En relación a lo anterior, se ha reportado que los profesionales de la salud tienden a ofrecer poca o ninguna orientación para el control del peso a sus pacientes, lo que podría relacionarse a las bajas expectativas que tienen en cuanto a los resultados de la intervención o a la asociación de estereotipos negativos sobre obesos en cuanto a su falta de autocontrol 49 . Similarmente, en un estudio se plantea que los profesionales que atienden obesos no recogen un historial clínico completo, ya que la mayoría de las dificultades reportadas por el paciente son atribuidas a la obesidad, limitando la indicación de otros exámenes para comprobar sus hipótesis diagnósticas o realizando exámenes físicos incompletos 30 .…”