Kyler Kathryn E, Cutburth Codi, Goleman Gayla, Hampl Sarah E, Beck Amy R
Children's Mercy Kansas City, 2401 Gillham Road, Kansas City, MO, 64108, USA.
University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, USA.
J Eat Disord. 2024 Oct 29;12(1):170. doi: 10.1186/s40337-024-01123-8.
Children with obesity may experience weight-based discrimination as a result of weight bias and stigma, which can have deleterious effects on their health and wellbeing, including increased risk of dysregulated, maladaptive, and disordered eating such as restriction, purging, and binging. Prior work has shown that weight bias occurs from healthcare workers caring for adults, but less is known about the prevalence of weight bias in the pediatric healthcare setting.
We aimed to determine what proportion of pediatric healthcare professionals had attitudes of weight bias at our own institution by constructing a survey with questions from validated weight bias survey tools. Results revealed nearly half of all respondents had witnessed another healthcare professional make negative remarks about a patient with obesity, and many shared that they lacked the proper education/training and equipment to properly care for patients with obesity. Based on survey results, we created an electronic-based training module to educate healthcare professionals on weight bias and discrimination and how they may negatively affect care provided to children and families with obesity at our institution. Engagement with hospital leadership was a key strategy to ensure participation from medical and nursing/allied health staff in the survey, although only nursing/allied health leadership required the online training module resulting in limited physician engagement.
Feedback received regarding the training module was overwhelmingly positive.
Our efforts illustrate that weight bias and discrimination exist in pediatric institutions, and that participation in a tailored electronic-based training module may be viewed as a helpful tool to raise awareness of how weight-based discrimination and bias can negatively affect patient care.
肥胖儿童可能会因体重偏见和污名化而遭受基于体重的歧视，这可能对他们的健康和幸福产生有害影响，包括饮食失调、适应不良和紊乱（如节食、催吐和暴饮暴食）的风险增加。先前的研究表明，体重偏见在照顾成人的医护人员中存在，但在儿科医疗环境中体重偏见的患病率知之甚少。
我们旨在通过使用经过验证的体重偏见调查工具中的问题构建一项调查，来确定在我们自己的机构中，儿科医疗专业人员中存在体重偏见态度的比例。结果显示，近一半的受访者曾目睹另一名医护人员对肥胖患者发表负面评论，许多人表示他们缺乏适当的教育/培训和设备来妥善照顾肥胖患者。根据调查结果，我们创建了一个基于电子的培训模块，以教育医护人员关于体重偏见和歧视，以及它们如何可能对我们机构中肥胖儿童及其家庭的护理产生负面影响。与医院领导的沟通是确保医疗和护理/联合健康工作人员参与调查的关键策略，尽管只有护理/联合健康领导要求参加在线培训模块，导致医生参与度有限。
收到的关于培训模块的反馈绝大多数是积极的。
我们的努力表明，儿科机构中存在体重偏见和歧视，参与量身定制的基于电子的培训模块可能被视为一种有用的工具，以提高人们对基于体重的歧视和偏见如何可能对患者护理产生负面影响的认识。
