TY - JOUR
T1 - Obesity stigma as a globalizing health challenge
AU - Slade, Alexandra
AU - SturtzSreetharan, Cindi
AU - Wutich, Amber
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by the Virginia G Piper Charitable Trust.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s).
PY - 2018/2/13
Y1 - 2018/2/13
N2 - Background: Based on studies conducted in the global north, it is well documented that those who feel stigmatized by overweight/obesity can suffer extreme emotional distress, be subject to (often legal and socially-acceptable) discrimination, and adjust diet and exercise behaviors. These lead to significant negative health impacts, including depression and further weight gain. To date, weight-related stigma has been conceptualized as a problem particular to the highest income, industrialized, historically thin-valorizing societies like the US, Australasia, and Western Europe. Main body: There is limited but highly suggestive evidence that obesity stigma is an emergent phenomenon that affects populations across the global south. Emergent evidence includes: implicit and explicit measures showing very high levels of weight stigma in middle and low-income countries, complex ethnographic evidence of widespread anti-fat beliefs even where fat-positivity endures, the globalization of new forms of "fat talk," and evidence of the emotional and material damage of weight-related rejection or mistreatment even where severe undernutrition is still a major challenge. Conclusion: Recognizing weight stigma as a global health problem has significant implications for how public health conceives and implements appropriate responses to the growing "obesity epidemic" in middle and lower income settings.
AB - Background: Based on studies conducted in the global north, it is well documented that those who feel stigmatized by overweight/obesity can suffer extreme emotional distress, be subject to (often legal and socially-acceptable) discrimination, and adjust diet and exercise behaviors. These lead to significant negative health impacts, including depression and further weight gain. To date, weight-related stigma has been conceptualized as a problem particular to the highest income, industrialized, historically thin-valorizing societies like the US, Australasia, and Western Europe. Main body: There is limited but highly suggestive evidence that obesity stigma is an emergent phenomenon that affects populations across the global south. Emergent evidence includes: implicit and explicit measures showing very high levels of weight stigma in middle and low-income countries, complex ethnographic evidence of widespread anti-fat beliefs even where fat-positivity endures, the globalization of new forms of "fat talk," and evidence of the emotional and material damage of weight-related rejection or mistreatment even where severe undernutrition is still a major challenge. Conclusion: Recognizing weight stigma as a global health problem has significant implications for how public health conceives and implements appropriate responses to the growing "obesity epidemic" in middle and lower income settings.
KW - Global health
KW - Globalization
KW - Obesity
KW - Overweight
KW - Public health interventions
KW - Stigma
KW - Weight
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U2 - 10.1186/s12992-018-0337-x
DO - 10.1186/s12992-018-0337-x
M3 - Comment/debate
C2 - 29439728
AN - SCOPUS:85042128119
SN - 1744-8603
VL - 14
JO - Globalization and Health
JF - Globalization and Health
IS - 1
M1 - 20
ER -