IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/epplan/v104y2024ics0149718924000363.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Preliminary evaluation of a brief worksite intervention to reduce weight stigma and weight bias internalization

Author

Listed:
  • Kelly, Nichole R.
  • Osa, Maggie L.
  • Luther, Gabriella
  • Guidinger, Claire
  • Folger, Austin
  • Williamson, Gina
  • Esquivel, Juliana
  • Budd, Elizabeth L.

Abstract

Weight-based discrimination (WBD) is common and associated with reduced physical and emotional functioning. WBD is common in the workplace, yet no studies have evaluated a WBD intervention delivered in a worksite setting. This study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of a 3-hour, remote-delivered WBD intervention at a large public university. Six workshops including 94 participants (41.76 ± 9.37 y; 92.8% women) were delivered December 2020 through May 2021; 88.3% of participants enrolled in the study and 88.8% of enrolled participants completed pre- and post-intervention surveys. Participants strongly agreed the workshop contributed to a more inclusive work environment (M=4.98 ± 0.2; 1 =Strongly Disagree to 5 =Strongly Agree); and was highly needed (4.9 ± 0.3) and liked (4.8 ± 0.5). Qualitative feedback cited benefits of remote delivery in providing body size anonymity and wanting access to intervention materials and more time for discussion and action steps to reduce WBD. Participants experienced significant, medium reductions in explicit weight bias (ps < .001), significant, small reductions in weight bias internalization (p < .001), and statistically non-significant (p = .08), small-to-medium reductions in implicit bias. Targeting worksites as a delivery mechanism has the potential to reduce WBD, thereby improving the health and well-being of diverse employees and creating a more inclusive workspace.

Suggested Citation

  • Kelly, Nichole R. & Osa, Maggie L. & Luther, Gabriella & Guidinger, Claire & Folger, Austin & Williamson, Gina & Esquivel, Juliana & Budd, Elizabeth L., 2024. "Preliminary evaluation of a brief worksite intervention to reduce weight stigma and weight bias internalization," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:epplan:v:104:y:2024:i:c:s0149718924000363
    DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2024.102434
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149718924000363
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2024.102434?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Westbury, Susannah & Oyebode, Oyinlola & VanRens. Thijs & Barber, Thomas M, 2023. "Obesity Stigma : Causes, Consequences, and Potential Solutions," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1452, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Paul E. Greenberg & Andree-Anne Fournier & Tammy Sisitsky & Mark Simes & Richard Berman & Sarah H. Koenigsberg & Ronald C. Kessler, 2021. "The Economic Burden of Adults with Major Depressive Disorder in the United States (2010 and 2018)," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 39(6), pages 653-665, June.
    3. Emily Panza & KayLoni Olson & Carly M. Goldstein & Edward A. Selby & Jason Lillis, 2020. "Characterizing Lifetime and Daily Experiences of Weight Stigma among Sexual Minority Women with Overweight and Obesity: A Descriptive Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-15, July.
    4. John Cawley, 2004. "The Impact of Obesity on Wages," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(2).
    5. Apostolos Davillas & Michaela Benzeval & Meena Kumari, 2016. "Association of Adiposity and Mental Health Functioning across the Lifespan: Findings from Understanding Society (The UK Household Longitudinal Study)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(2), pages 1-19, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Goulão, Catarina & Lacomba, Juan Antonio & Lagos, Francisco & Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2024. "Weight, attractiveness, and gender when hiring: A field experiment in Spain," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 132-145.
    2. Charles Courtemanche & James Marton & Benjamin Ukert & Aaron Yelowitz & Daniela Zapata, 2018. "Early Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Health Care Access, Risky Health Behaviors, and Self‐Assessed Health," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(3), pages 660-691, January.
    3. Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2012. "A Matter of Weight? The Role of Spouses. Physical Attractiveness on Hours of Work," CHILD Working Papers Series 7, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    4. Kemp, Gordon C.R. & Santos Silva, J.M.C., 2012. "Regression towards the mode," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 170(1), pages 92-101.
    5. Md. Alauddin Majumder, 2013. "Does Obesity Matter for Wages? Evidence from the United States," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 32(2), pages 200-217, June.
    6. Maximilian D. Schmeiser, 2012. "The impact of long‐term participation in the supplemental nutrition assistance program on child obesity," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(4), pages 386-404, April.
    7. Courtemanche, Charles & Tchernis, Rusty & Zhou, Xilin, 2017. "Parental Work Hours and Childhood Obesity: Evidence Using Instrumental Variables Related to Sibling School Eligibility," IZA Discussion Papers 10739, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Sonya Huffman & Marian Rizov, 2014. "Body weight and labour market outcomes in Post-Soviet Russia," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(5), pages 671-687, July.
    9. Tao, Hung-Lin, 2014. "Height, weight, and entry earnings of female graduates in Taiwan," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 85-98.
    10. von Hinke Kessler Scholder S, 2009. "Genetic Markers as Instrumental Variables: An Application to Child Fat Mass and Academic Achievement," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 09/25, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    11. Wang, Huixia & Wang, Chenggang & Halliday, Timothy J., 2018. "Health and health inequality during the great recession: Evidence from the PSID," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 17-30.
    12. Costa-i-Font, Joan & Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina & Jiménez-Rubio, Dolores, 2012. "Do income gradients in unhealthy behaviours explain patterns of health inequalities?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 44302, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Donal O'Neill & Olive Sweetman, 2013. "Estimating Obesity Rates in Europe in the Presence of Self-Reporting Errors," Economics Department Working Paper Series n236-13.pdf, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.
    14. Martin, Molly A. & Lippert, Adam M., 2012. "Feeding her children, but risking her health: The intersection of gender, household food insecurity and obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(11), pages 1754-1764.
    15. Christopher Carpenter & Sebastian Tello-Trillo, 2015. "Do 'Cheeseburger Bills' Work? Effects of Tort Reform for Fast Food," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(4).
    16. Meyer, S.C. & Künn-Nelen, A.C., 2014. "Do occupational demands explain the educational gradient in health?," Research Memorandum 016, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).
    17. Lauber, Verena & Thomas, Lampert, 2014. "The Effect of Early Universal Daycare on Child Weight Problems," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100399, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    18. Dirk Van de gaer & Joost Vandenbossche & José Luis Figueroa, 2014. "Children's Health Opportunities and Project Evaluation: Mexico's Oportunidades Program," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(2), pages 282-310.
    19. Chih-Chien Huang & Scott T. Yabiku & Stephanie L. Ayers & Jennie J. Kronenfeld, 2016. "The obesity pay gap: gender, body size, and wage inequalities—a longitudinal study of Chinese adults, 1991–2011," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 221-242, September.
    20. Greve, Jane, 2008. "Obesity and labor market outcomes in Denmark," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 350-362, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:epplan:v:104:y:2024:i:c:s0149718924000363. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/evalprogplan .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.