Obesity Bias Among Dietitians Using the Fat People-Thin People Implicit Association Test

Abstract

Text: The purpose of this study was to determine if Registered Dietitians (RDs), whose careers focus on the clinical management of obesity, display a negative bias toward obese persons. The subjects (n 175) comprised of a convenience sample of RDs from professional listservs, resulting in 128 (73%) completed surveys. The researchers utilized the Fat People-Thin People Implicit Association Test (IAT), found on the website www.implicit.harvard.edu (designed to measure social knowledge). The IAT reports findings that demonstrate pervasive implicit preferences and stereotypes that exist across a sample. Bivariate associations were tabulated and an F-test was performed to find association among variables. Across all categories RDs (76%; n 98) had a strong to moderate preference (p .05) for thin people compared to fat people, which proved to exceed the IAT results taken from the general population (52%; n 2.5 million). Age breakdown denotes that 86.8% (n 33) age 20-29, 80% (n 28) age30-39 and 67.3% (n 37) over 40 years have a strong to moderate preference for thin people compared to fat people. Also, 85.2% (n 52) of participants with a BS, 67.2% (n 41) with a MS and 75% (n 3) with a Doctorate displayed a strong to moderate preference for thin people compared to fat people. We expected RDs to be more tolerant than the general population, but found this to be untrue. Pervasive education pertaining to working with patients who are obese are recommended.