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. 2023 Apr;46(4):787-794.
doi: 10.1007/s40618-022-01971-8. Epub 2022 Nov 28.

Weight stigma speaks Italian, too

G Muscogiuri  1   2   3 , L Barrea  4   5 , L Verde  4 , A Docimo  6 , S Savastano  6   4 , D Di Pauli  7 , A Colao  6   4   8
Affiliations

Weight stigma speaks Italian, too

G Muscogiuri et al. J Endocrinol Invest. 2023 Apr.

Abstract

Purpose: Weight stigma is the negative weight related attitudes and beliefs towards individuals because of their overweight or obesity. Subjects with obesity are often victim of weight-related stigma resulting in a significant negative social consequence. As obesity epidemic is growing so fast, there is urgency to act on weight-stigma related social consequences being potentially serious and pervasive. This study investigated experiences, interpersonal sources, and context of weight stigma in Italy in a sample of adult subjects with obesity.

Methods: An online questionnaire was distributed to respondents via a snowball sampling method among subjects with obesity belonging to Italian Associations for people living with obesity aged 18 years and above.

Results: Four hundred and three respondents (47.18 ± 9.44 years; body mass index (BMI) 33.2 ± 8.48 kg/m2) participated to the study. Most respondents were females (94.8%). The age first dieted was 15.82 ± 7.12 years. The mean period of obesity was 27.49 ± 11.41 years. Frequency analyses reported that stigmatizing situations were experienced by 98% of participants: 94.82% during adulthood, 89.88% during adolescence and 75.39% during childhood. Verbal mistreatments (92.43%) was the most reported stigmatizing situation, strangers (92.43%) were the most common interpersonal sources of stigma and public settings (88.08%) were the most common location of stigma.

Conclusions: Identifying strategies acting on the identified weight stigma targets could contribute to reduce weight stigma and thus to result in important implications for obesity treatment in Italy.

Keywords: Childhood obesity; Diet; Obesity; Obesity questionnaire; Psychological health; Weight stigma.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Type of stigma in the study population
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Interpersonal sources of stigma in the study population
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Context of stigma in the study population
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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