Anti-obesity attitudes, food symptomatology and meanings associated with obesity in students linked to the health area

Abstract

Introduction: people with obesity are often subjected to weight-related stigma by the population. Career students linked to the approach to obesity, as part of society, also experience anti-obesity attitudes, which can affect the quality of care they will offer. Objectives: to analyze the differences by sex, in university students linked to the health area, in anti-obesity attitudes, drive for thinness, bulimia, and body dissatisfaction, identifying variables allowing to predict negative attitudes regarding obesity. In addition, the meanings associated with excess malnutrition were explored. Method: with a cross-sectional, non-experimental design and non-probabilistic, convenience sampling 212 participants were accessed. Instruments included: AFA, EDI-2, and natural semantic networks. Results: women showed higher values than men in all the variables studied (p < 0.05) except bulimia (p > 0.05). Drive for thinness was the only predictor for anti-obesity attitudes (R2 = 0.40). The most prevalent meanings attached to people with obesity were “illness” and “psychological issues”. Conclusions: the presence of drive for thinness in students who will work in the comprehensive approach to obesity is a predisposing factor to experiencing anti-obesity attitudes. Among the most prevalent meanings associated with overweight in this group are psychological issues, rather than concepts related to food and physical activity. All this can have a negative impact on the quality of the care they offer.