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Query: UMLS:C0277787 (stigma)
 13,352 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Despite increasing trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity, fatness phobia is common during female adolescence. This study has demonstrated a high level of dissatisfaction with body weight in a sample of Dublin schoolgirls aged 15 y. Of 420 subjects, 59% reported that they wanted to be slimmer and 68% had previously tried to lose weight. Contrary to expectations, overweight girls were not found to hold the monopoly on such dissatisfactions. Normal weight and even underweight girls also expressed a desire to be thinner and reported using unhealthy weight control practices including random avoidance of staple foods, fasting, smoking and purging, in their pursuit of the 'perfect' female figure. Obesity prevention programmes which target adolescent girls 'at risk' of overweight and obesity, must take cognizance of their profound fear of fatness, otherwise the use of harmful slimming strategies may be further increased as teenage girls frantically try to lose weight and to avoid the stigma associated with female fatness.
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PMID:The pursuit of thinness: a study of Dublin schoolgirls aged 15 y. 962 47

This article describes a broad-spectrum, computer-aided self-help clinic that raised the throughput of anxious/depressed patients per clinician and lowered per-patient time with a clinician without impairing effectiveness. Many sufferers improved by using one of four computer-aided systems of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) self-help for phobia/panic, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and general anxiety. The systems are accessible at home, two by phone and two by the Web. Initial brief screening by a clinician can be done by phone, and if patients get stuck they can obtain brief live advice from a therapist on a phone helpline. Such clinician-extender systems offer hope for enhancing the convenience and confidentiality of guided self-help, reducing the per-patient cost of CBT, and lessening stigma. The case examples illustrate the clinical process and outcomes of the computer-aided system.
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PMID:Computer-aided CBT self-help for anxiety and depressive disorders: experience of a London clinic and future directions. 1472 22

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.
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PMID:Impact of information about obesity genomics on the stigmatization of overweight individuals: an experimental study. 2267 91

The use of HIV serostatus information has played a pivotal role in partner selection norms. A phenomenon known as serosorting is the practice of selecting a partner based on a perception that they are of the same HIV status in order to avoid transmission from one partner to the other. An understudied aspect of serosorting is that it has a divisive effect-one accepts or rejects a potential partner based on a singular characteristic, the partner's HIV status, and thus excludes all others. This division has been formally referred to as the HIV serodivide. In this study, we explored partner selection strategies among a group of HIV-negative, young men who have sex with men (n = 29) enrolled in a PrEP demonstration project in Northern California. We found that trends in serosorting were in fact shifting, and that a new and opposite phenomenon was emerging, something we labeled "seromixing" and that PrEP use played a part in why norms were changing. We present three orientations in this regard: (1) maintaining the phobia: in which men justified the continued vigilance and exclusion of people living with HIV as viable sex or romantic partners, (2) loosening/relaxation of phobia: among men who were reflecting on their stance on serosorting and its implications for future sexual and/or romantic partnerships, and (3) losing the phobia: among men letting go of serosorting practices and reducing sentiments of HIV-related stigma. The majority of participants spoke of changing or changed attitudes about intentionally accepting rather than rejecting a person living with HIV as a sex partner. For those who maintained strict serosorting practices, their understandings of HIV risk were not erased as a result of PrEP use. These overarching themes help explain how PrEP use is contributing to a closing of the HIV serodivide.
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PMID:"Losing the Phobia:" Understanding How HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Facilitates Bridging the Serodivide Among Men Who Have Sex With Men. 3023 1