Oral Presentation Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society Annual Scientific Conference 2024

Development of a checklist to minimise weight stigma in weight management interventions and settings (#105)

Hiba Jebeile 1 , Kelly Cooper 2 , Isabelle Jardine 1 , Angela S Alberga 3 , Xochitl De la Piedad Garcia 4 , on behalf of the EDIT Collaboration Weight Stigma Working Group 1
  1. Children’s Hospital Westmead Clinical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  2. Weight Issues Network, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  3. Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Applied Physiology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
  4. School of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Weight stigma and weight discrimination refer to the negative attitudes and behaviours towards people with higher weight, because of their body size. Weight stigma is associated with several negative physical and psychological health outcomes, including decreased engagement with exercise and disordered eating behaviours. Experiences of weight stigma in healthcare settings and within weight management interventions, may contribute to poor psychological health and healthcare avoidance. This study aimed to develop a checklist designed for healthcare professionals delivering weight management interventions to ensure weight stigmatisation is minimised, to the extent possible, in these interventions and settings. An EDIT (Eating Disorders In weight-related Therapy) Collaboration Working Group was formed including researchers and clinicians with expertise in weight management interventions, eating disorders, and/or weight stigma, as well as lived experience experts, to inform the co-development and validation of the checklist. Initially, a 16-item checklist was developed based on the available literature on contributors to weight stigma in healthcare settings, and through consultation with the working group. Questions were refined and then pilot tested with two reviewers. The checklist was then modified to include 21 items across four domains (planning and personnel, intervention design and content, outcomes and monitoring, and additional components). The validity of the tool is being assessed via an online survey with at least 20 clinicians involved in weight management, weight stigma researcher, and individuals with lived experience of higher weight. Participants have been asked to provide an assessment of the extent to which each item is clear and relevant to the aim of the tool and the extent to which the tool as a whole comprehensively covers all aspects of weight stigma as it may present in weight management interventions and settings. In this presentation we will provide results of the validation process and present the final checklist.