Disparities in Access and Quality of Obesity Care

Tiffani Bell Washington; Veronica R Johnson; Karla Kendrick; Awab Ali Ibrahim; Lucy Tu; Kristen Sun; Fatima Cody Stanford

doi:10.1016/j.gtc.2023.02.003

Disparities in Access and Quality of Obesity Care

Gastroenterol Clin North Am. 2023 Jun;52(2):429-441. doi: 10.1016/j.gtc.2023.02.003. Epub 2023 Apr 7.

Authors

Tiffani Bell Washington¹, Veronica R Johnson², Karla Kendrick³, Awab Ali Ibrahim⁴, Lucy Tu⁵, Kristen Sun⁶, Fatima Cody Stanford⁷

Affiliations

¹ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: TiffaniBell@hsph.harvard.edu.
² Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA.
³ Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
⁴ Pediatric Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
⁵ Department of Sociology, Harvard College, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard College, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
⁶ Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
⁷ Department of Medicine- Neuroendocrine Unit, Pediatric Endocrinology, MGH Weight Center, Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 50 Staniford Street, Suite 430, Boston, MA 02114, USA.

Abstract

Obesity is a chronic disease and a significant public health threat predicated on complex genetic, psychological, and environmental factors. Individuals with higher body mass index are more likely to avoid health care due to weight stigma. Disparities in obesity care disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minorities. In addition to this unequal disease burden, access to obesity treatment varies significantly. Even if treatment options are theoretically productive, they may be more difficult for low-income families, and racial and ethnic minorities to implement in practice secondary to socioeconomic factors. Lastly, the outcomes of undertreatment are significant. Disparities in obesity foreshadow integral inequality in health outcomes, including disability, and premature mortality.

Keywords: Access to care; Disparities; Health equity; Quality obesity care; Stigma.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Body Mass Index
Chronic Disease
Delivery of Health Care*
Humans
Obesity* / therapy
Socioeconomic Factors
United States

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding