CONTEXT Attention given to weight control has skyrocketed in recent years, ingraining words like 'BMI', 'obesity epidemic', and 'diet' into our everyday vocabulary. Since the increase of obesity prevention initiatives and campaigns, incidence of weight stigma has also increased. Although it is not socially acceptable to discriminate someone based on their weight; blaming, shaming, and ‘concern trolling’ are very common in all aspects of a person’s with excess weight life, from school to work, from their home to the doctor’s office. Although commenting on one’s body may be ‘well-intended’, a study conducted by Puhl and Brownell (2006), showed that 79% of the study participants use food as a coping mechanism against weight-based stigma, therefore, shaming someone for their body size most likely will not lead to weight loss. A growing number of research shows that weight stigma increases psychological distress that can contribute to poor physical health (Puhl, 2010). According to current evidence, prejudicial attitudes against people with obesity are linked to low-esteem, anxiety, poor body image, disordered eating practices, binge-eating, avoidance of physical activity, even depression (Puhl and Heuer, 2019). Unfortunately, discrimination based on body size is prevalent in healthcare settings which leads to individuals with obesity being more reluctant to seek medical care, more likely to delay important preventative healthcare services and cancel medical appointments, and showing lower rates of adherence to medication (Amy et al., 2006). At the same time, health providers report inefficient training with regards to weight bias and stigma. (Russell-Mayhew, 2016). OBJECTIVES Design, develop, and disseminate an innovative training framework and eventually a complete set of training material and tools about weight bias in healthcare settings as well as to make clear that treatment of obesity is more complex than the advice of “eat less-move more”. Also, the project aims to provide participants with the skills and methodological tools so they will be able to promote health without harming. PARTICIPANTS The partnership comprises 6 organisations with complementary expertise: a digital strategy agency with vast expertise in the development of bespoke applications and tools (P1), a company that applies the Health At Every Size (HAES®) approach in order to support people to make peace with food and their bodies (P2), a training consultancy with a strong adult training component (P3), a technical consulting company (P4), a University specialising in public health issues (P5), and an adult training organisation which develops software to complement and support its training approaches (P6). APPROACH METHODOLOGY AND PROJECT ACTIVITIES - Identification of harmful behaviours and practices due to weight bias - Validation of the identified training needs of healthcare professionals - Elaboration of a training methodology addressing healthcare professionals that can be transferred to other settings as well -Development of a training curriculum and training material focusing on providing healthcare professionals with a thorough understanding of the impact of weight bias on their patients while equipping them with tools to support their patients and to encourage healthy behaviours beyond dieting. - Customisation, set-up, and configuration of a Learning Motivation Environment to facilitate the training material. - Iterative design and development of a Dynamic Demonstrator, a tool to train learners in a hands-on way through real life scenarios -Creation of a dedicated virtual space for direct communication and ideas and experience exchange among the target groups in order to build up a huge network increasing the impact of the project -Validation of the outputs through a series of workshops providing feedback to adjust the project IOs -Multiplier events promoting the project results and how they can be adopted in real-life situations IMPACT AND LONG TERM BENEFITS Compassionate and understanding health professionals will deliver better care while lessening the negative impact of weight stigma. At the same time they will be able to understand their own internalised weight bias against themselves or their loved ones, improving their quality of life. Our initiative aims at helping health professionals: - To treat patients affected by obesity with empathy and respect. - To avoid using stereotypical language and prejudicial narratives that depict people with obesity as lazy and lacking self-discipline. - To encourage and support their patients at focusing on health instead of losing weight in order to eventually improve their mental and physical well being. Such practices will create a health care system that is more fair and accessible to all regardless of their body size. Like with any form of stigma, the path towards inclusion starts with widespread awareness.
Breaking Weight Bias (BWB) is an EU funded project, conceived in 2020 with the aim to help promoting a society with no weight bias. More specifically, the project targets people in the healthcare system, which more than expectedly, are susceptible to bias with patients with a higher weight. According to recent research, the increase of obesity prevention initiatives and campaigns, has directly influenced the increase of weight stigma. This discrimination, although very common in all aspects of individuals’ life, is surprisingly also very common in healthcare settings, which leads to individuals with obesity being more disinclined to seek medical care, more likely to delay important preventative healthcare services, cancel medical appointments, and showing lower rates of adherence to medication (Amy et al., 2006). According to research by Russell-Mayhew in 2016, health providers also reported inefficient training with regards to weight bias and stigma. This is why, Breaking Weight Bias also aims to help health providers to acquire a better understanding of weight bias, learn how to recognise it and challenge it, through a complete set of training material and tools about weight bias.
The reason behind the implementation of Breaking Weight Bias, can be retraced to various research conducted in the past years in the field of weight bias. To start with, weight bias refers to the discriminatory acts and ideologies targeted towards individuals because of their weight and size (Worldobesity.org, 2022). According to research (Amy et al., 2006), these weight bias and stigma are often common within the healthcare settings, which leads individuals with obesity or a higher weight, not to seek medical care, delay important preventative healthcare services, cancel medical appointments, and showing lower rates of adherence to medication. Furthermore, weight stigma increases psychological distress that also contributes to poor physical health (Puhl, 2010). This is why Breaking Weight Bias targets health care practitioners in order to equip them with a training framework and the tools necessary which will help them have a deeper understanding of weight bias, of how to recognise them and challenge them and finally being able to promote health without harming.