Flourish NGO takes part in public discussion

One of the primary goals of the 'Flourish NGO' is to advocate for the interests of individuals and to raise public awareness about weight stigma and its associated challenges. For this reason, members of the association's board, Ieva Miltiņa and Aija Bahmane, provided recommendations and participated in a public discussion organized by the Ministry of Health of Latvia regarding the Action Plan to reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity for the years 2025-2029. Some of the recommendations were adopted, and the plan's refinements will be published soon.

While the draft plan proposes solutions aimed at promoting public health and addressing problems related to overweight and obesity, we have identified several shortcomings and significant gaps that risk undermining the meaningful achievement of the plan's objectives and, more importantly, the health of the public and individuals. Our recommendations are largely related to a previously under-recognized public health problem: weight bias and obesity stigma (hereinafter referred to as weight stigma), which is not reflected in the draft action plan. Given our daily work with the target group of the action plan and our knowledge of their needs and the theoretically grounded explanation of the problem in various areas of life, we have identified following gaps.

Extensive research on weight stigma has not been conducted in the Latvian context, so we will argue using the findings of international studies. However, to demonstrate the presence of the problem in Latvia, we conducted preliminary research (full research results will be available next year). Preliminary data from a small group (n=46) indicated that Latvian residents who are currently or have previously experienced overweight have experienced a number of negative consequences of weight stigma. 95.7% of respondents reported experiencing body shaming, 25.6% of them at least once a week. 67.4% of respondents have experienced hate speech related to their bodies, while 19.6% confidently stated that they have also experienced discrimination based on body weight/shape, and 13% - even physical violence. These are just the obvious consequences of weight stigma, but theory suggests that it is a systemic problem that affects all members of society, regardless of their body size.

Weight stigma and body shaming, regardless of BMI, pose risks to health and preventive care. Experiencing weight stigma increases the risk of obesity by 2.5 times, and for people with overweight, it reduces the likelihood of losing excess weight by 3 times (Sutin & Terraciano, 2013). Experiencing weight stigma increases the risk of eating disorders (Vartanian & Porter, 2016) and other mental health disorders (depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, etc.) (Emmer, 2019). Anticipating that the doctor will identify overweight as the cause of every complaint, individuals are less likely to seek medical help (Tomiyama, 2014), their physical activity levels decrease, and they feel more ashamed of engaging in physical activity in public (Vartanian & Novak, 2011). In the long term, it also contributes to the risk of mortality, both due to health problems caused by internalized negativity and anxiety (Sutin, 2015) and due to delayed medical care. We would like to emphasize that the goal of the Guidelines approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on May 26 is to improve the health of Latvia's population by extending the years lived in good health, preventing premature mortality, and reducing health inequalities. Weight stigma directly negatively affects each of these aspects, but particularly unequal access to healthcare. These and other risks, as well as potential solutions to weight stigma, were already reflected in the WHO document "Weight bias and obesity stigma: considerations for the WHO European Region" in 2017, which we encourage you to review for a broader understanding of the topic.

REFERENCES

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2. Hayward, L. E., Neang, S., Ma, S., & Vartanian, L. R. (2020). Discussing weight with patients with overweight: Supportive (not stigmatizing) conversations increase compliance intentions and health motivation. Stigma and Health, 5(1), 53.

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4. Obesity Reviews - 2019 - Emmer - The association between weight stigma and mental health A meta‐analysis

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Photo by The Climate Reality Project on Unsplash

Content warning: words "overweight" and "obesity" is used in this article.