The Effects of Obesity on the Clinical Judgments of Mental Health Professionals

This study was undertaken to determine whether a client's weight influences the clinical judgments of mental health practitioners. We used an analogue approach in which 120 mental health workers evaluated a case history that included a photograph of the client. Using the photographic process ECRM, we altered the image of a single photograph of a middle-aged woman to produce three pictures: best-weight model, overweight model, and obese model. Results show that mental health workers are more likely to assign negative psychological symptoms to the obese model than to the overweight or best-weight model. In addition, male respondents are less harsh than females in their assessment of the obese client, indicating that a sex-by-obesity interaction effect occurs. Similarly, older mental health workers are less likely than their younger peers to assign negative symptoms to the obese client. Finally, a client'sweight-by-respondent's-weight interaction, influencing certain diagnostic judgments, is detected. Overweight mental health workers are less predisposed to differentiate between obese, overweight, and best-weight clients than are their less heavy contemporaries. These findings indicate that diagnosis is affected, or confounded, by the weight of the client. Implications for future research are discussed.