Most are unaware of their significant implicit bias, although it could affect quality of care
THURSDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) -- More than one-third of medical students have a significant implicit anti-fat bias that few are aware of, according to a study published in the July issue of Academic Medicine.
David P. Miller Jr., M.D., from the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., and colleagues surveyed third-year medical students using the Weight Implicit Association Test (IAT), a validated measure of implicit preferences for "fat" or "thin" individuals. A semantic differential item assessed their explicit weight-related preferences. Students' awareness of their biases was examined through the correlation between their explicit preferences and their IAT scores.
The researchers found that of the 310 students who completed valid surveys, 33 percent self-reported a significant ("moderate" or "strong") explicit anti-fat bias. No significant anti-thin biases were self-reported. Based on IAT scores, more than half the students had a significant implicit weight bias: 39 percent anti-fat and 17 percent anti-thin. Students were unaware of their implicit anti-fat bias in two-thirds of the cases. An explicit anti-fat bias was predicted only by male gender (odds ratio, 3.0). There was no correlation between students' explicit and implicit biases (P = 0.58).
"In conclusion, we found that over one-third of medical students have a significant anti-fat bias, and few were aware of that bias," write the authors. "To prevent anti-fat biases from compromising patient care, medical schools should develop curricula to address weight-related biases in a comprehensive manner."
Abstract
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