Health professionals' views of overweight people and smokers.

OBJECTIVES: To examine health professionals' views of overweight people, to compare these to their views of smokers, and to explore the role of level of severity on these perceptions.
DESIGN: A postal survey of health professionals employing a two by two, independent factorial design. The health category (overweight or smoker) was divided by level of severity (moderate or extreme), so that respondents received questionnaires about either: (i) moderately overweight people; (ii) extremely overweight people; (iii) moderate smokers; or (iv) heavy smokers. PARTICIPANTS: Two-hundred and fifty-five general medical practitioners and clinical psychologists in the north of England. MEASUREMENTS: A questionnaire was designed to explore beliefs about the causes, attitudes towards, and perceptions of responsibility of overweight people and smokers.
RESULTS: Moderately and extremely overweight people were perceived as having reduced self-esteem, sexual attractiveness and health, and to be moderately responsible for changing their situation (but less so than smokers). There were clear level effects in the perceptions of overweight, but not so for smokers. Of the four groups, moderately overweight people were viewed most positively and extremely overweight (obese) people were viewed least positively.
CONCLUSIONS: Overall, health professionals' attitudes to overweight people were neutral to negative rather than entirely negative. However, where apparent negative attitudes were more likely to be directed at obese people than moderately overweight people. As obesity is a risk to health, the practice implications of health professionals' negative attitudes or patients' reticence to visit professionals who treat them with disregard must be addressed.