Obesity Medicine Specialist Integrative Medical Weight Management
Obesity is a disease that disproportionately affects women. Those from ethnic/racial minorities and those who live in poverty are often more severely affected. Given the health consequences of excess adiposity, it is important for clinicians to understand the societal, socioeconomic, interpersonal, and physiologic factors that influence the development, progression, and persistence of obesity in women.
Women often carry a disproportionate share of the burden of household, family, and caregiving responsibilities leaving little or no time for personal care and health-promoting behaviors. Research shows that these gender inequities contribute to the development of obesity in women. Women experience more weight bias and stigmatization in multiple areas of life including employment and healthcare. Health inequities, pay disparities, food insecurity, adverse childhood experiences, domestic violence, sexual harassment and assault, and society’s overfocus on women’s bodies all impact the weight and health of women. These factors influence a woman’s ability to both engage in treatment and treatment response.
This presentation will expand the lens through which you view women with obesity and will provide you with the knowledge and tools you need to provide informed, evidence-based treatment to the women you care for. Short patient vignettes will illustrate how psycho-social and physiological factors intersect and will provide you with strategies to address them.
Learning Objectives:
Recognize the societal, socio-economic, interpersonal, and physiologic factors that affect women with obesity
Understand how multiple factors impact the development, progression, & persistence of obesity in women
Identify key interventions that address the intersection of factors that affect women with obesity