Qualified and student healthcare professionals in Singapore display explicit weight bias. A cross-sectional survey.

Abstract

Background: Globally, many healthcare professionals display weight bias and contribute towards weight stigma. However, weight bias of healthcare professionals in Asia is underexplored.

Objective: To investigate weight bias of healthcare professionals in Singapore and explore differences between qualified and student healthcare professionals, plus between i) gender, ii) Body Mass Index (BMI) and iii) ethnicity categories.

Methods: Healthcare professionals in Singapore engaged in a web-based survey (March 2023). Participants answered general categorical questions, plus two explicit weight bias outcomes (Fat Phobia Scale and Antifat Attitudes questionnaire). Descriptive statistics summarize outcome findings. Factors associated with degree of weight bias were explored between categories (i.e. student vs qualified, plus gender, BMI and ethnicity categories). Significance was set at p = <0.05.

Results: Fifty-five percent of participants (n = 294/525) were qualified healthcare professionals. Mean Fat Phobia Scale score (/5) was 3.19 ± 0.20 (range 2.00-3.86) and total Antifat Attitudes questionnaire score (/9) was 3.20 ± 1.25 (range 0.00-6.85). No significant differences were observed between categories for the Fat Phobia Scale. For the Antifat Attitudes questionnaire, those with underweight BMI's had lower total scores compared to those with healthy (2.54 vs 3.23, MD -0.70) or overweight (2.54 vs 3.41, MD -0.87) BMI's. No other differences in total Antifat Attitudes Scores were observed. However, differences did exist in Antifat Attitude subdomain scores between gender and ethnicity categories.

Conclusion(s): Qualified and student healthcare professionals in Singapore display comparable levels of explicit weight bias. This may lead to stigma, and subsequent inequalities in, and poorer provision of, care for people living with overweight and obesity.