ArticleInternational journal of obesity (2005)2018
Framing obesity a disease: Indirect effects of affect and controllability beliefs on weight bias.
Article in International journal of obesity (2005), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing Weight Stigma Interventions: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.Current obesity reports · 2025Pooled it
- Front-of-Package Food Labels and Perceived Weight Stigmatization: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2025Trial
- Using stereotype violation to shift causal understanding and attitudes about weight.Eating behaviors · 2024Trial
- A School-Based Intervention Program to Reduce Weight Stigma in Adolescents.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Weight stigma amid pediatric healthcare providers: a cross-sectional survey study assessing the roles of weight controllability beliefs and blame.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- The Impact of Novel Medications for Obesity on Weight Stigma and Societal Attitudes: A Narrative Review.Current obesity reports · 2025Review
- Pervasiveness, impact and implications of weight stigma.EClinicalMedicine · 2022Review
- Mapping changes in the obesity stigma discourse through Obesity Canada: a content analysis.AIMS public health · 2022Article
- Effects of physical-activity-related anti-weight stigma materials on implicit and explicit evaluations.Obesity science & practice · 2021Article
- NP student encounters with obesity bias in clinical practice.The Nurse practitioner · 2019Article
- Addressing Weight Stigma in Medical Education: Insights and Strategies From a Nutrition Curriculum Review.Journal of medical education and curricular developmentArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
objectivesObesity has been declared a disease by the American and Canadian Medical Associations. Although these declarations sparked much debate as to the impact of framing obesity as a disease on weight bias, strong empirical research is needed to examine this impact. The current study examined the impact of framing obesity a disease on weight bias, focusing on moderating and mediating processes. SUBJECTS/
methodsA sample of 309 participants living in the United States or Canada was recruited from Crowdflower. Participants completed measures of demographics, ideology, general attitudes, and previous contact quality and quantity with people living with obesity. Participants then read one of three articles as part of an experimental manipulation framing obesity as a disease, obesity not as a disease, and a control article unrelated to obesity. Post-manipulation included measures of affect, disgust, empathy, blame, and weight bias.
resultsOrthogonal contrasts were used to compare the obesity-disease condition to the obesity-not-disease condition and control condition. The manipulation had a direct effect on affect (emotions), such that affect toward individuals with obesity was more positive in the obesity-disease condition than the obesity-not-disease and control condition combined. Exploration of moderating effects revealed that both the belief in a just world and weight satisfaction moderated the relationship between the obesity-disease manipulation and blame for obesity. Two models of indirect effects on weight bias were also examined, which demonstrated that the obesity-disease manipulation predicted less weight bias through more positive affect (model 1) as well as less weight bias through decreased blame among individuals high in belief in a just world (model 2).
conclusionsThis study further highlights the complex effects of declaring obesity a disease, uncovering a new direction for future research into the role of affect as well as indirect effects of characterising obesity a disease on weight bias.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.