Education as a tool to modify anti-obesity bias among Pediatric residents

Bias can affect the care of certain groups, including obese patients.1 The classic stereotype about obese people is encountered in healthcare. One study found that health care professionals demonstrate strong negative associations toward obese persons both with attitude and stereotype measures.2 Obesity specialists are not any different, showing a pro-thin, anti-fat implicit bias, in addition to acceptance of stereotypes of lazy, stupid, and worthless.3 A cross-sectional survey to internal medicine residents demonstrated that 80% of residents reported feeling uncomfortable examining obese patients or difficulty feeling empathy for them.4 There are no studies evaluating the presence of bias exclusively in pediatricians or in pediatric residents. Moreover, there are no studies evaluating how to change anti-obesity bias in pediatric residents. The purpose of this paper is to describe how we found answers to these queries, first, by confirming the presence of anti-obesity bias in pediatric residents and, second, by evaluating the efficacy of an obesity curriculum to modify any initial bias.