How fat-shaming doctors are hurting their patients

Doctors undoubtedly want what’s best for their patients’ health, but psychologists have shown that when a physician shames someone for their size, even as motivation, it can do their patients more harm than good.

In an abstract from a paper called Sizeism is a Health Hazard, psychologists describe how shaming patients leads to them avoiding health care to avoid being shamed again.

“Disrespectful treatment and medical fat shaming (in an attempt to motivate people to change their behavior) is stressful and can cause patients to delay health care seeking or avoid interacting with providers,” the abstract explains.

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During a presentation on the abstract at the 125th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Joan Chrisler, a professor of psychology at Connecticut College, described how patients can internalize “microaggressions” from their physician and how deeply it can affect them.

Microaggressions can be subtle things like making negative noises when a patient is being weighed, shaking your head or wincing. These behaviours create further shame for a person that is undoubtedly well aware of their size — and it creates further stigma, too.

This can cause a patient to avoid further interaction with their physician, which can delay proper medical care or treatment.

Chrisler goes on to explain that doctors might assume that a complaint or ailment from a patient must be related to their size, which can lead to dangerous errors.

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“Thus, they could jump to conclusions or fail to run appropriate tests, which results in misdiagnosis,” she said.

Overall, psychologists like Chrisler agree that sizeism and fat-shaming is something that needs to be addressed within the medical community.

Overall, she recommends that doctors focus on the overall wellbeing of their patients, which includes both mental and physical health, and not just their weight.

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