Highlights
- •Nursing students are prone to prejudice and stigmatization towards obese individuals.
- •The stigmatization levels of the students living in extended families are high.
- •The level of stigmatization increases with age.
- •The prejudice levels of senior students are high.
- •As stigmatization levels increase, prejudice towards obesity increases as well.
Abstract
Aim
The study was conducted to determine the prejudice and stigmatization levels of nursing
students towards obese individuals.
Design and methods
This descriptive and correlational study was conducted in Turkey in 2021 with 233
students in the nursing department of a state university. The data were collected
using the Information Form, GAMS-27 Obesity Prejudice Scale, and the Stigma Scale.
Independent sample t-test, One-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis were used
to analyze the data.
Results
The findings suggest that the students are prone to prejudice and their tendency to
stigmatize is high. It was found that the difference between the student's year of
study and obesity prejudices, and between family types and stigmatization levels was
significant. It was determined that the stigmatization levels of the students were
a determining factor on the obesity prejudice levels and there was a weak positive
correlation between them.
Conclusions
Nursing students are prone to showing prejudice towards obese individuals and their
stigmatization levels are high. In this respect, it is recommended that prejudice
and stigmatization issues regarding obesity should be included in the nursing curriculum
before students start their professional life.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Archives of Psychiatric NursingAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Ebelik öğrencilerinin obez gebelere karşi önyargisi.Anadolu Hemşirelik ve Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi. 2017; 20 (Retrieved from https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/ataunihem/issue/31360/337083): 201-207
- Too big to be seen: Weight-based discrimination among nursing students.Paper presented at the Nursing Forum.2018
- Internalised weight stigma as a mediator of the relationship between experiences of weight stigma and biopsychosocial outcomes: A systematic literature review.(Retrieved from)
- Obesity stigma as a globalizing health challenge.Globalization and Health. 2018; 14 (Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12992-018-0337-x.pdf): 1-6
- Eating disorders and obesity: A comprehensive handbook.Guilford Publications, 2017
- Obese women's perceptions and experiences of healthcare and primary care providers: A phenomenological study.Nursing Research. 2013; 62 (Retrieved from): 252-259https://doi.org/10.1097/NNR.0b013e318299a6ba
- Prejudice against obesity among students in a faculty of health sciences: A cross-sectional study in Turkey.Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health. 2019; 50 (Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12462/11023): 598-605
- Attitudes toward obese people: A comparative study of nursing, education, and social work students.Journal of Professional Nursing. 2019; 35 (Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S8755722318301054): 138-146
- Baccalaureate nursing students' attitudes of prejudice: A qualitative inquiry.Journal of Nursing Education. 2016; 55 (Retrieved from https://journals.healio.com/doi/abs/10.3928/01484834-20160516-08): 345-348
- Sağlik bilimleri öğrencileri için obezite önyargi ölçeğinin geliştirilmesi: Gams 27-obezite önyargi ölçeği.International Peer-Reviewed Journal ofNutrition Research. 2015; 2https://doi.org/10.17362/DBHAD.2015310322
- Implicit bias in healthcare professionals: A systematic review.BMC Medical Ethics. 2017; 18 (Retrieved from https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12910-017-0179-8): 1-18
- Obesity stigma and bias.The Journal for Nurse Practitioners. 2016; 12 (Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S155541551630188X): 425-432
- Weight bias and stigma: Impact on health.Nursing Clinics. 2021; 56 (Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34749889/): 479-493
- Obesity, stigma and discrimination.(Retrieved from)
- Unconscious weight bias among nursing students: A descriptive study.Paper presented at the Healthcare.2019
- Validity evidence for a novel instrument assessing medical student attitudes toward instruction in implicit bias recognition and management.BMC Medical Education. 2021; 21 (Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12909-021-02640-9): 1-10
- Kişilik psikolojisi, önyargının psikolojisi ve kamuoyu: Gordon allport ve Walter Lippmann'ın görüşleri çerçevesinde bir değerlendirme.Ankara Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi. 2017; 2 (Retrieved from http://www.sobild.ankara.edu.tr/index.php/sobild/article/view/724)
- Nurse practitioner students' awareness of obesity bias within clinical practice.The Nurse Practitioner. 2019; 44 (Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6613797/): 41
- Nurse practitioner students' observations of preceptor engagement in obesity management and weight bias: A mixed-methods approach.Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. 2020; 32 (Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32590444/): 520
- Impact of weight-related discrimination, body dissatisfaction and self-stigma on the desire to weigh less.Obesity Facts. 2017; 10 (Retrieved from https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/468154): 139-151
- Framing obesity: Disease status, language and stigma.Practice Nursing. 2019; 30 (Retrieved from https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/epub/10.12968/pnur.2019.30.9.448): 448-451
- Impact of weight bias and stigma on quality of care and outcomes for patients with obesity.Obesity Reviews. 2015; 16 (Retrieved from): 319-326https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12266
- Weight stigma in youth: Prevalence, consequences, and considerations for clinical practice.Current Obesity Reports. 2020; (Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13679-020-00408-8): 1-10
- The moralization of obesity.Social Science & Medicine. 2019; 237 (Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953619303855)112399
- Does body mass index of nursing students correlate with their attitude towards obesity?.Asian Journal of Medicine and Biomedicine. 2018; 2 (Retrieved from https://journal.unisza.edu.my/ajmb/index.php/ajmb/article/view/231): 44-49
- Sağlık Yüksekokulu öğrencilerinin obezite ön yargı düzeylerinin değerlendirilmesi.Online Türk Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi. 2016; 1 (Retrieved from https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/otjhs/issue/27479/300994): 9-17
- Attitudes of health care professionals towards female obese patients.Obesity Facts. 2013; 6 (Retrieved from https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/356692): 512-522
- Obesity, prejudice, self, and culture: A longitudinal case study.Paidéia (Ribeirão Preto). 2019; 29 (Retrieved from https://www.scielo.br/j/paideia/a/jfJLfyKjWmXjkTW4qdBjrbd/?format=html&lang=en)
- Attitudes of medical professionals towards discrimination of patients with obesity.Risk Management and Healthcare Policy. 2021; 14 (Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8504468/): 4169
- Obesity and discrimination–A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.Obesity Reviews. 2016; 17 (Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/obr.12343): 43-55
- The Health Stigma and Discrimination Framework: A global, crosscutting framework to inform research, intervention development, and policy on health-related stigmas.BMC Medicine. 2019; 17 (Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12916-019-1271-3): 1-13
- The sense of coherence as a predictor of the scope and impact of stigma experiences among people with mental illness.Psychiatry Research. 2013; 209 (Retrieved from): 249-251https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2013.04.018
- How and why weight stigma drives the obesity ‘epidemic’and harms health.BMC Medicine. 2018; 16 (Retrieved from https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-018-1116-5): 1-6
- Perceptions of nursing students about individuals with obesity problems: Belief, attitude, phobia.Perspectives in Psychiatric Care. 2021; 57 (Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ppc.12613): 777-785
- Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic.(Retrieved from)
- Obesity and overweight.(Retrieved from)
- Discrimination and obesity.in: The Routledge handbook of the ethics of discrimination. Routledge, 2017: 264-275
- Impact of weight stigma on physiological and psychological health outcomes for overweight and obese adults: A systematic review.Journal of Advanced Nursing. 2018; 74 (Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jan.13511): 1030-1042
- The effect of knowledge on healthcare professionals' perceptions of obesity.Obesity Medicine. 2018; 11 (Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451847618300083): 20-24
- Damgalama (stigma) ölçeğinin geliştirilmesi, geçerlilik ve güvenirlik çalışması.Değerler Eğitimi Dergisi. 2013; 11 (Retrieved from https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/ded/issue/29175/312427): 251-270
- Culture and stigma: Adding moral experience to stigma theory.Social Science & Medicine. 2007; 64 (Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953606005958): 1524-1535
- Prejudice against obesity in university students studying in health-related departments.Perspectives in Psychiatric Care. 2018; 55 (Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ppc.12314): 170-174
- Attitudes and behaviors of nursing students towards obese individuals.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences. 2018; 2 (Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326836020_Attitudes_and_Behaviors_of_Nursing_Students_towards_Obese_Individuals): 03-09
- Ending obesity stigma and discrimination: Starting from healthcare professionals.Official Journal of the American College of Gastroenterology| ACG. 2021; 116 (Retrieved from https://journals.lww.com/ajg/Fulltext/2021/08000/Ending_Obesity_Stigma_and_Discrimination__Starting.33.aspx): 1753
Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 07, 2022
Accepted:
June 2,
2022
Received in revised form:
May 23,
2022
Received:
March 15,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.