Who drives weight stigma? A multinational exploration of clustering characteristics behind weight bias against preconception, pregnant, and postpartum women
Authors' conclusion
Explicit and implicit weight bias was harboured by participants across all included nations, although less pronounced in non-Western countries. Our profiles highlight that individuals who held a stronger belief that weight is controllable, regardless of their body weight, should be targeted for interventions to eliminate weight stigma.
Study context
- Population
- Community members from Australia, Canada, United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), Malaysia and India; weight bias against preconception, pregnant and postpartum (preconception, pregnant, and postpartum (PPP)) women (May–July 2023)
- Exposure
- Countries of residence and latent profiles
- Outcome
- Explicit and implicit weight bias against PPP women, and profiles of characteristics associated with weight bias
Methodological detailsmultinational, survey, hierarchical multiple regression, latent profile analysis
- Multinational
- Survey
- Hierarchical multiple regression
- Latent profile analysis
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
B
−0.45
P = 0.02
India · lowest explicit weight bias
B
−0.14
P = 0.04
Australia · lowest implicit weight bias
B
−0.16
P = 0.02
UK · lowest implicit weight bias
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Latent profiles
- Three profiles clustering on body mass index (BMI) and weight-controllability beliefs: low-BMI/moderate-beliefs, high-BMI/more biased beliefs, high-BMI/less biased beliefs
- 3
- Low-BMI/moderate-beliefs profiles contained more people from non-Western countries and with low explicit weight bias
Original publication
Who drives weight stigma? A multinational exploration of clustering characteristics behind weight bias against preconception, pregnant, and postpartum women. Int J Obes (Lond). Published 28 January 2025. doi:10.
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