The Goal: Compassionate Care for All
More than a third of the U.S. population is obese. Do the very people they seek help from discriminate against them? Occupational therapy senior Sabrina Cote's research project undertaken with her faculty sponsor Kerryellen Vroman examines attitudes about obesity held implicitly by occupational therapists and physician assistants.
In a succinct six-page research paper, Sabrina Cote '09 presents her results on "Occupational Therapy and Physician Assistant Students' Attitudes towards Adults Who Are Obese."
As Cote explains in her introduction, anti-fat attitudes are pervasive in society and "overweight people are subject to discrimination in all spheres of their lives including education, work, and health care." But, given that obesity is associated with many health problems-- this group is "at risk of receiving inadequate health care." In her poster presentation at the National Canadian Occupational Therapy Conference Cote presented her preliminary data on occupational therapy students. It included a quote by Richard Sorensen, a physician who is obese and the author of "A personal perspective on the needs of the weight loss surgery patient," published in Critical Care Nursing Quarterly. Sorensen's quote underscores the need for greater understanding of those patients who are obese.
"I have never met a healthcare professional who went to work intending to do wrong. Yet, I am aware of well meaning, very qualified healthcare professionals behaving in ways that might have critically jeopardized, unintentionally abused, and mistreated me and other morbidly obese clients through medical errors, ignorance, and prejudice."
Cote became interested in psychosocial factors associated with obesity two years ago when she took a course, Psychosocial Disorders and Everyday Life, with Assistant Professor Kerryellen Vroman. In that class, Cote wrote her first paper on this subject, "Depression and Its Relationship to Obesity." Cote then applied for a summer undergraduate research fellowship (SURF) grant. Now, three papers later, Cote finds that she likes the process of research and has found it energizing to work with Vroman.
On completion of her research, Cote had enlisted 194 occupational therapy students and 182 physician assistant students from five universities in New England. The students completed three measures of attitude and a demographic questionnaire.
Her results clearly showed that both groups of students held "prejudicial attitudes toward clients who are obese." She found that when subjects were unaware that anti-fat attitudes were being measured, both occupational therapy students and physician assistant students judged potential clients who were obese more negatively than clients who were not obese. They were less empathic and questioned the client's motivation for recovery.
"Prejudicial attitudes and beliefs toward people who are obese need to be explored and addressed in the curriculum of health professions," concludes Cote. Furthermore, she recommends, "It is crucial that anti-fat attitudes are addressed in the health care environment to ensure all clients receive compassionate, quality treatment."
--By Carrie Sherman
Link:
Department of Occupational Therapy http://www.chhs.unh.edu/ot/