Weight stigma speaks Italian, too

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/m(2)) 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.

Automated summary

This study investigated the experiences, interpersonal sources, and context of weight stigma in adult subjects with obesity in Italy. The results showed that a significant number of participants have experienced weight stigma, primarily through verbal mistreatment from strangers in public settings. With the obesity epidemic growing rapidly, addressing weight stigma is important for obesity treatment in Italy.