Fat equals lazy?

Doctors are guilty of wrongly believing that obese people are simply lazy, research suggests.

Researchers Inflatable Slide at Yale University said the findings highlight the difficulty in tackling the stigma around obesity.

This is despite the fact that obesity can be caused by a variety of other factors, such as genes and environment.

Dr Marlene Schwartz and colleagues carried out psychological tests on 389 professionals who treat and study obese people.

They found that younger professionals, in particular, were most likely to have unfavourable stereotypes of obese people.

Workers who did not deal directly with obese patients were also inclined to see them in an unfavourable light.

"On both implicit and explicit measures, health professionals associated the stereotypes lazy, stupid and worthless with obese people," said Dr Schwartz.

"The stigma of obesity is so strong that even those most knowledgeable about the condition infer that obese people have blameworthy behavioural characteristics that contribute to their problem, i.e. being lazy," she said.

"Furthermore, these biases extend to core characteristics of intelligence and personal worth."

"Although it is very rare to find a case where obesity is purely genetic, there are many cases where it is not in the patient's control."

He said it was unhelpful for doctors to be biased against obese patients.

"It is important for doctors and other health professionals to show understanding and enthusiasm for change.