Abstract
Obesity is a public health crisis in the United States, which is often paired with stigmatization and lack of sensitivity. There is an absence of awareness regarding the health and fitness professionals’ attitudes and beliefs towards this epidemic. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes and beliefs regarding obesity held by health and fitness professionals and determine whether length of time working in this profession is associated with negative attitudes and beliefs. METHODS: A total of 141 health and fitness professionals from throughout the United States participated in this research. A sample size of 134 participants was determined with the use of the G*Power software for a correlation with expected moderate effect size. The data collection tool was an online survey administered through Survey Monkey. Participants answered questions about their attitudes and beliefs regarding obesity using modified versions of the Attitudes Towards Obese Persons Scale (ATOP) and the Beliefs About Obese Persons Scale (BAOP). Attitude and belief scores were calculated by means of scores and standard deviations for the entire cohort to determine overall attitudes and beliefs. These scores were reported as frequency and distribution of positive and negative scores for attitudes and beliefs towards obese persons. A Pearson Correlation was used to determine associations between time spent in the field and health and fitness professionals’ attitudes and beliefs. An analysis of variance was used to evaluate significance differences between time spent in the field groups. Statistical significance was set at £ 0.05 for all analyses. RESULTS: The results of this investigation indicate that this cohort of practitioners had negative attitudes towards individuals with obesity (ATOP = 47.3, SD ± 13.2, range = 20-86 and BAOP = 12.3, SD ± 5.1, range = 0-29). There was a low but significant correlation between time spent in the field and attitudes and beliefs (r = 0.18, p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: These findings of this research indicate that health and fitness professionals may have negative attitudes and beliefs regarding individuals with obesity. The importance of this finding highlights the potential for implementation of educational interventions to help enhance empathy and compassion skills towards these individuals.
Recommended Citation
Schober, Shelby A.; Whitehead, Robyn H.; and Whitehead, Malcolm T.
(2025)
"Health and Fitness Professionals’ Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Individuals with Obesity,"
International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings: Vol. 2:
Iss.
17, Article 152.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ijesab/vol2/iss17/152