Far too many medical professionals are “biased” against people who are obese, Dr Kathy Breen, the Chair of the Association for the Study of Obesity on the Island of Ireland, has said.
The HSE has written new guidelines for treating obesity and Dr Breen said that it is important that healthcare professionals emphasise that the condition is not a lifestyle choice as many in society assume.
“Obesity is still a highly stigmatised disease,” Dr Breen told Lunchtime Live.
“I suppose the medical profession is as open to weight basis as anyone else and we know that there are levels of weight bias among healthcare professionals as in anybody else.
“Certainly, for these guidelines we’ve tried to be very broadly collaborative. We’ve had about 70 specialists in obesity across the island of Ireland involved in adapting these guidelines.
“So, there would be a wide consensus among healthcare professionals that this is best practice.
“We’ve also had collaboration with the Irish Coalition for Living with Obesity. We’ve had lived experience involved in the adaptation of the guidelines - and the HSE.”
Dr Breen hopes that going forward doctors should treat obesity more as a “long-term chronic disease” but says there is also need for “national conversation on weight stigma”.
Man holding red stethoscope.One million obese Irish people
There are currently around one million people in Ireland with obesity and the Irish Coalition for People Living with Obesity (ICPO) said the guidelines are a positive step forward.
"In the past people who live with obesity have been shut out of receiving quality healthcare because of the biased, flawed misconceptions about what drives obesity and how we can improve health,” chair Susie Birney told Newstalk Breakfast.
"Obesity has incorrectly been seen as the result of poor personal decisions, including within the health system and among health professionals.
"Now that we have these evidence-informed guidelines agreed at all levels we need to collectively apply and implement them.
"We also need a programme of education among healthcare professionals, and the public, to eliminate bias and stigma about obesity.”
Main image: Three obese individuals. Picture by: Alamy.com
