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 124,988 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Advances in genomic technologies are rapidly leading to new understandings of the roles that genetic variations play in obesity. Increasing public dissemination of information regarding the role of genetics in obesity could have beneficial, harmful, or neutral effects on the stigmatization of obese individuals. This study used an online survey and experimental design to examine the impact of genetic versus non-genetic information on obesity stigma among self-perceived non-overweight individuals. Participants (n = 396) were randomly assigned to read either genetic, non-genetic (environment), or gene-environment interaction obesity causal information. A total of 48% of participants were female; mean age was 42.7 years (range = 18-86 years); 75% were white; 45.2% had an annual household income of less than $40,000; mean BMI was 23.4 kg/m(2). Obesity stigma was measured using the Fat Phobia Scale - short form (FPS-S). After reading the experimental information, participants in the genetic and gene-environment conditions were more likely to believe that genetics increase obesity risk than participants in the non-genetic condition (both P < 0.05), but did not differ on obesity stigma. Obesity stigma was higher among whites and Asians than Hispanics and African Americans (P = 0.029), and associated with low self-esteem (P = 0.036). Obesity stigma was also negatively associated with holding 'germ or virus' (P = 0.033) and 'overwork' (P = 0.016) causal beliefs about obesity, and positively associated with 'diet or eating habits' (P = 0.001) and 'lack of exercise' (P = 0.004) causal beliefs. Dissemination of brief information about the role of genetics in obesity may have neither a beneficial nor a harmful impact on obesity stigmatization compared with non-genetic information among self-perceived non-overweight individuals.
Obesity (Silver Spring) 2012 Dec
PMID:Impact of information about obesity genomics on the stigmatization of overweight individuals: an experimental study. 2267 91

Previous research has largely ignored the question of whether watching reality weight-loss TV shows influences viewers to form a negative obesity stereotype. This study examines antecedents and outcomes of watching The Biggest Loser with the Orientation1-Stimulus-Orientation2-Response (O-S-O-R) model. The study found that individuals who are more concerned with their weight (O1) watch more episodes of The Biggest Loser (S). Meanwhile, consumption of The Biggest Loser leads to greater perceived locus of weight control (O2), indicating that body weight is under personal control. Perceived locus of weight control, in turn, significantly predicts the attribution of obesity to personal responsibility (R). Ultimately, attributing obesity to personal responsibility leads to the formation of anti-fat attitudes (R). This study offers an integrative theoretical framework to investigate media effects on the formation of an obesity stigma by using the O-S-O-R model. The results imply that certain lifestyle transformation media, such as The Biggest Loser, might reinforce the notion that individuals control their own weight and thus further amplify the obesity stigma.
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PMID:No clear winner: effects of The Biggest Loser on the stigmatization of obese persons. 2274 88

Obesity (or being overweight) is now considered a by-product of membership of developed societies. Moreover, it is considered a growing 'global' health problem. This article reports on a small qualitative study of adults who fell into one or other of these categories in Norway in 2010, and who have been faced with decisions about lifestyle versus surgical remedies. This decision making is contextualized and the principal criteria examined. Embodiment, bodywork, self- and social identity, stigma, deviance and issues around the idea of personal responsibility and public health emerge as key themes. The concluding paragraphs commend incorporation of a macro- or social structural perspective to the conceptualization and investigation of obesity.
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PMID:From fatness to badness: the modern morality of obesity. 2280 77

Obesity is a physiological energy imbalance, a chronic disorder that results from an increase in caloric intake and/or a decrease in caloric expenditure. Other than the accumulation of excess adipose tissue, there are no signs or symptoms characteristic of all obese people. Obesity rates have increased exponentially worldwide in the past thirty years for reasons that we do not entirely understand. Multiple environmental, genetic, neuro-endocrinological, and psychosocial factors contribute to the development of obesity. Though there are many different, and even controversial, frameworks for obesity, most researchers acknowledge that it can lead to serious medical and psychological morbidity. This paper focuses on psychological dimensions in the study of obesity: the intricate human "minded brain" that promotes self-regulation, motivation, and self-efficacy; the complexities involved in considering obesity a psychiatric disorder, with the possibility of a so-called "obese personality"; the role of stigma, prejudice, and discrimination; and psychiatric symptomatology among the obese.
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PMID:Of mind and matter: psychological dimensions in obesity. 2287 25

Obese individuals are blamed for their excess weight based on causal attribution to the individual. It is unclear whether obese individuals of different age groups and gender are faced with the same amount of stigmatization. This information is important in order to identify groups of individuals at risk for higher stigmatization and discrimination. A telephone interview was conducted in a representative sample of 3,003 participants. Experimental manipulation was realized by vignettes describing obese and normal-weight children, adults and senior citizens. Stigmatizing attitudes were measured by semantic differential. Causal attribution was assessed. Internal factors were rated with highest agreement rates as a cause for the vignette's obesity. Lack of activity behavior and eating too much are the most supported causes. Importance of causes differed for the different vignettes. For the child, external causes were considered more important. The overweight vignette was rated consistently more negatively. Higher educational attainment and personal obesity were associated with lower stigmatizing attitudes. The vignette of the obese child was rated more negatively compared to that of an adult or senior citizen. Obesity is seen as a controllable condition, but for children external factors are seen as well. Despite this finding, they are faced with higher stigmatizing attitudes in the general public, contradicting attribution theory assumptions. Internal and external attribution were found to be inter-correlated. Obese children are the population most at risk for being confronted with stigmatization, making them a target point in stigma-reduction campaigns.
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PMID:Obese children, adults and senior citizens in the eyes of the general public: results of a representative study on stigma and causation of obesity. 2307 64

This study examines the societal perceptions and judgements made towards HIV-positive pregnant women when compared with those targeting pregnant women with other medical conditions. One hundred and sixty participants (124 female) were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions defined by specific medical condition of the pregnant woman in the vignette (HIV/AIDS, obesity, lung cancer or diabetes). Participants were asked to respond to a variety of items gauging their reaction to the woman and her pregnancy subsequent to reading the scenario. As expected, participants were least approving of the pregnancy of the woman with HIV/AIDS, and they rated her as a less fit parent than the women with the other medical conditions. Subsequent analyses revealed that concern for the health of the child and attributions of responsibility/blame for the medical condition did not account for the differential reactions to the pregnant woman with HIV/AIDS. These findings corroborate the felt stigma and prejudicial attitudes reported by HIV-positive mothers.
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PMID:Judgements regarding the acceptability of childbearing and parental fitness made towards women living with HIV. 2321 44

Among ethnic populations in Hawai'i, Native Hawaiians continue to be over-represented with the highest rates in: morbidity and mortality, chronic health conditions, and the health risks of being overweight and obese. Focused on these two health risks, the investigation reported in this article has a specific aim of empirically determining whether social stigma as manifested in the form of perceived overt or covert discrimination is a contributing factor. Current studies focused on select ethnic populations, particularly African Americans point to discrimination as an important but understudied predictor of adverse health outcomes. Acknowledging the paucity of research on discrimination and its role in the health of Native Hawaiians, this investigation utilizes data from the 2007 Hawaiian Health Survey which was coordinated by the Department of Health, and the Office of Health Status Monitoring and implemented by SMS Hawai'i. The weighted sample of Hawai'i adults included measures of race/ethnicity and of everyday discrimination and the BMI (Body Mass Index). Logistic regression analyses were applied to determine if: (a) discrimination was significantly related to being overweight and/or obesity; and (b) whether this relationship remained a salient predictor after key demographic factors of gender, age, education, income, and length of time in the Islands were taken into account. This study confirmed the negative influence of overt discrimination as well as the protective nature of covert discrimination in explaining the variability in obesity/overweight in Native Hawaiians. The implications of this study for strategic interventions and research are discussed.
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PMID:Discrimination and obesity among Native Hawaiians. 2325 72

This study explored experiences of obesity, its perceived causes and motives for surgery, as described by seven Saudi women contemplating bariatric surgery. The women experienced cultural restrictions on their physical and social activities. Obesity embodied these restrictions, attracting stigma and moral failure. Traditional clothing, foods, hospitality norms and limited outdoor female activities were regarded as barriers to weight loss. Bariatric surgery was chosen to protect health and to access normative female roles. Some were encouraged by relatives who had undergone surgery. Opting for surgery reflected both participants' sense of powerlessness to self-manage weight and the social acceptability, within their family context, of this biomedical approach.
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PMID:Experiences of obesity among Saudi Arabian women contemplating bariatric surgery: an interpretative phenomenological analysis. 2347 6

We stand today at the threshold of major changes in our policies on the treatment of obesity. These treatments, surgical for severe obesity, behavioral for lesser degrees of obesity, produce predictable weight losses with almost complete safety but poor maintenance of these losses. New findings on the distribution of body fat have profound implications for treatment. It is upper body obesity, particularly the visceral fat depot, that conveys most of the medical risk of obesity, and upper body obesity is a problem primarily afflicting men. Paradoxically, most persons coming for treatment for obesity are women, driven by the merciless stigma that attacks women for their obesity. Two major changes in our policies on the treatment of obesity are strongly indicated. First, we must encourage men to enter treatment for obesity in numbers commensurate with the serious risks of their obesity. Second, we must make every effort to decrease the stigma of obesity for women. Lay self-help organizations such as OBESITAS can play a key part in this endeavor. It can help to apply legal sanctions against discrimination where such laws exist and advocate such laws where they do not. It can educate the public and it can use its immense creativity to develop new methods of reducing stigma.
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PMID:The treatment of obesity: a contemporary view. 2351 30

The aim of the current article was to compare stigmatizing attitudes toward eating disorders (EDs), including anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge eating disorder (BED), with stigma toward another weight-related condition (obesity) and a non-weight-related mental disorder (major depressive disorder [MDD]). Participants (N = 447) read five vignettes describing a woman with AN, BN, BED, obesity, or MDD and responded to questionnaires examining stigmatizing attitudes. The targets with EDs were blamed more for their condition than the targets with MDD, whereas persons with obesity were held more responsible for their condition than any other target. On the other hand, the target with MDD was perceived as more impaired than any other target. Lack of self-discipline was attributed more to the development of BED and obesity than to any other condition. Stigmatizing attitudes vary across mental health disorders, and future research should aim to specifically target stigmatizing beliefs to reduce and prevent discrimination toward mental health disorders and obesity.
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PMID:Stigmatizing attitudes differ across mental health disorders: a comparison of stigma across eating disorders, obesity, and major depressive disorder. 2353 72


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