Throughout the years, obesity has been a common source of discrimination and stigma in almost all social settings; from family circles, school environments, and the workplace, people with obesity face an unfair amount of discrimination due to their weight and nothing else.
Both discrimination and stigmatization can make a person suffering from obesity quite miserable. Stigma has to do with the negative attitudes obese people face; they often include stereotyping, such as thinking obese people are lazy or of weak character.
Stigma also encompasses name calling, physical aggression, and being ignored or targeted in a negative way.
Discrimination refers specifically to an unfair or unequal treatment of the person. This includes, but is not limited to, denying a person a job because of their weight, being denied a promotion or a service. Weight is not an indicator of your ability or qualifications, but employers may be increasingly wary of hiring overweight employees because of how it might impact their bottom line.
Another type of weight discrimination can be seen in the medical field, as it has often been reported that patients who are obese or overweight do not receive the same kind of medical attention or constantly deal with negligence. Obesity is a multifactorial disease and, unfortunately, there are physicians all over the world who perform one operation after another and send patients’ home with no more than a goodbye or even a follow-up treatment. Surgery alone cannot solve such a sensitive problem and the bariatric patients must learn about the foods that promote greater wellbeing and how to manage the thoughts and behaviors that triggered their obesity. Comprehensive care is the only thing that will allow the obese patient to reach his or her goals and live a full and healthy life.
At LIMARP®, we make sure to treat every patient that walks through our door with the care and dignity they deserve. We believe that everyone, no matter their weight, should be treated with respect, especially when they’re seeking medical help to improve their quality of life. We know that the solution for obesity cannot rely on a single action such as a surgery, which is why we offer nutrition and psychological services as part of our integrative program. Many of our patients have dealt with some type of discrimination due to their weight and our multidisciplinary team includes psychologists that help them deal and overcome whatever issues that may be hindering their mental health.
For this article, we’d like to discuss weight discrimination in healthcare and in the workplace by providing examples and statistics.
It will take great societal change to stop weight discrimination and the best we can provide in this article are steps on how to improve your self-esteem and step away from the negative noise that hinders your mental health. However, we understand that more drastic steps need to be taken in order to put an end to weight discrimination at a larger scale. We recommend you speak to professionals, in both the legal and psychological fields, if you’re dealing with intense or unmanageable weight discrimination.
Weight Discrimination: What is it?
Weight discrimination refers to the unequal treatment of people purely associated with their weight and it’s not the same as weight stigma or bias, which is concerned solely with negative attitudes towards people who are overweight but does not include negative actions[1]. This type of discrimination is very common in Mexico and in the United States, two countries where obesity is on the rise. One study, which only focused on weight discrimination in the United States, found that weight discrimination was more prevalent than discrimination due to ethnicity, sexual orientation and physical disability[2].
Other studies[3] found that women are more likely to be discriminated against due to their weight than men with the differential percentage points exceeding more than 5% in comparison.
This is an important point to keep in mind because women also face more discrimination due to their gender, so they’re more exposed to mistreatment than men. There is also direct and indirect weight discrimination. In the former, people are mistreated explicitly because of their weight and whomever is inflicting the discrimination is being blatant about it; on the other hand, indirect weight discrimination knowingly puts an overweight person at a disadvantage in comparison with others.
Weight Discrimination in the Workplace
These types of discrimination, both direct and indirect, are very prevalent in the workplace. Unlike other types of discrimination, such as gender, race, and sexual, there are no federal laws currently in place that protect obese or overweight people from workplace discrimination, and although more people are growing more conscious of the harm that these injustices can inflict on other people, many fatphobic practices still go unnoticed by many.
According to one source[4], 93% of employers would rather hire someone of average weight instead of someone who is visibly overweight despite their qualifications and in some cases, if theory were hired, employees would have to meet certain weight guidelines in order to have access to healthcare. It’s also been proven that overweight people tend to earn less money than their peers of average weight and are less likely to be offered promotions, if they’re even given the job in the first place[5].
Other aspects within a workplace environment where obese or overweight people can face disadvantage or discrimination include:
- The interview and hiring processes
- Disciplinary actions
- Unjust contract terminations
- Promotions within the company
Despite a growing awareness of how weight discrimination in the workplace has affected a great part of the population, many people are still experiencing it at different levels and it tends to worsen if they have a high BMI.
Weight Discrimination in Healthcare
Weight discrimination also extends to healthcare and its consequences pose serious threats to a person’s well-being because they may not get the necessary care and attention due to weight bias. One of the most common beliefs is that heavier people are inherently unhealthy and that they “must” lose weight if they want to improve their health, ignoring any other factors or underlying medical conditions that may be causing the initial discomfort.
Unfortunately, research[6] has shown that healthcare professionals “behave in discriminatory ways, such as blaming serious health issues on weight and, therefore, inadvertently ignoring other possible causes”. One of the main biases some healthcare professionals have is that they view and treat obesity as a personality trait and not as a health condition, thus labeling the patient as weak-willed, lazy, and uninterested in improving their health.
Another study found that people with overweight or obesity report lower quality care[7] and that medical professionals offer treatment recommendations based on stereotypes, not the person’s actual needs.
When it comes to statistics, weight bias has been increasing up to 60% within the medical field in the last decade and other data gathered by this 2016 paper suggest the following[8]:
- 53% of women with obesity report being on the receiving end of inappropriate comments concerning their weight from healthcare professionals.
- 79% of people with excess weight or obesity report eating more to cope with weight discrimination.
- 52% of women say that their weight has kept them from receiving appropriate healthcare. Concerns about weight are also associated with delaying or avoiding preventative care.
- 40% of healthcare professionals admit to having negative reactions to patients with obesity.
These percentages, as previously mentioned, have risen throughout the last decade and if things don’t change, they will only continue to increase. When it comes to healthcare, medical staff must be educated and trained on how to let go of any weight stigma that they might have developed throughout their life. Some examples of weight stigma within the medical community may include holding negative beliefs about people based on their weight, falsely attributing health problems to weight, misunderstanding the causes of obesity, using shame tactics to make a person lose weight, and believing that weight is the most important factor in health.
Consequences of weight discrimination and stigma
Now that we’ve discussed what weight discrimination entails, it’s important to highlight the negative impact it has on people’s health. First, the harm it has on a person’s mental health can bring forth other harmful consequences, such as increased anxiety and depression. When it comes to their physical health, it’s also common for many to develop disordered eating and to avoid preventive care due to fear of being judged or shamed because of their weight.
Other studies[9] have found that people also tend to gain more weight due to weight discrimination. The overwhelming stress can drive a person to overeat or binge; it can also increase their cortisol levels, which can also increase their weight at a quicker rate. People who face weight discrimination at work also tend to have lower incomes, thus preventing them from having access to better healthcare.
What can be done?
To fight weight discrimination in healthcare and at the workplace, it’s important to speak up and to seek legal guidance in order to make a change. We’re still a long way from achieving just laws that protect everyone, but spreading awareness is one of many steps that must be taken. If you or anyone you know is facing weight discrimination, make sure to find or create a good support system where everyone feels safe. However, if the discrimination progresses into harassment or if it’s having a heavy toll on your mental health, please contact a health professional to get the help you need.
Contact Us to Learn More
If you want to learn more weight discrimination, schedule an appointment with one of our doctors. We can help determine the right treatment for you. Contact us online anytime or give us a call at (619) 373-0229.
References
- [1] “Weight discrimination in the workplace”. https://hpalivewell.com/weight-discrimination-in-the-workplace/. (Accessed February 9, 2023).
- [2] Puhl R, Brownell KD. (2001). Bias, discrimination, and obesity. Obesity Research, 9:788-805. Puhl, R.M., Andreyeva, T., & Brownell, K.D (2008). Perceptions of weight discrimination: prevalence and comparison to race and gender discrimination in America. International Journal of Obesity. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2008.22
- [3] “Weight Discrimination: A Socially Acceptable Injustice”. https://www.obesityaction.org/resources/weight-discrimination-a-socially-acceptable-injustice/. (Accessed February 9, 2023).
- [4] “Overweight and Underpaid: Weight Discrimination at Work”. https://safetymanagement.eku.edu/blog/overweight-and-underpaid-weight-discrimination-at-work/. (Accessed February 9, 2023).
- [5] Lee H, Ahn R, Kim TH, Han E. Impact of Obesity on Employment and Wages among Young Adults: Observational Study with Panel Data. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Jan 7;16(1):139. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16010139. PMID: 30621065; PMCID: PMC6338917.
- [6] Rubin R. Addressing Medicine’s Bias Against Patients Who Are Overweight. JAMA. 2019;321(10):925–927. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.0048
- [7] Phelan SM, Burgess DJ, Yeazel MW, Hellerstedt WL, Griffin JM, van Ryn M. Impact of weight bias and stigma on quality of care and outcomes for patients with obesity. Obes Rev. 2015 Apr;16(4):319-26. doi: 10.1111/obr.12266. Epub 2015 Mar 5. PMID: 25752756; PMCID: PMC4381543.
- [8] Fruh SM, Nadglowski J, Hall HR, Davis SL, Crook ED, Zlomke K. Obesity Stigma and Bias. J Nurse Pract. 2016 Jul-Aug;12(7):425-432. doi: 10.1016/j.nurpra.2016.05.013. PMID: 28408862; PMCID: PMC5386399.
- [9] Tomiyama, A., Carr, D., Granberg, E. et al. How and why weight stigma drives the obesity ‘epidemic’ and harms health. BMC Med 16, 123 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-018-1116-5
