Quite a few years ago, I had strep throat and went to the doctor. At the time I was 5’ 11’ and weighed 185 pounds.

I went through the regular rigmarole that one does at the doctor until it came time to being weighed (because obviously weight must be an important factor to a sore throat) at which point the Doctor exclaimed, “Oh, you are a Big Boy! I was thirty years old, hardly a boy and honestly 5” 11’ and 185? C’mon.

He mentioned how big I was several times over the course of the visit, “We need to make sure we get enough dosage for such a Big Boy!” While, ultimately the course of treatment was fine, antibiotics, his comments stuck with me. I remember being mortified, like I had eaten my way to enormous land. It was very disconcerting. I never went to that Doctor, again.

Years later, I realize his commentary was inappropriate. And believe me; I would love to be 185, again.

In a study conducted by Yale University last year, 389 physicians were given an Implicit Associations Test (IAT) and a self-report questionnaire assessing explicit attitudes and personal experiences with obesity. The IAT was used to assess overall implicit weight bias (associating "obese people" and "thin people" with "good" vs. "bad") and three ranges of stereotypes: lazy-motivated, smart-stupid, and valuable-worthless. The questionnaire assessed explicit bias on the same dimensions, along with personal and professional experiences with obesity.

Drum role please: the researchers found that health professionals exhibited a significant pro-thin, anti-fat implicit bias on the IAT. In addition, the subjects significantly endorsed the implicit stereotypes of lazy, stupid, and worthless using the IAT.

What have been your experiences with anti-fat bias with healthcare providers?

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