A Meta-Analysis of Weight Stigma and Health Behaviors

Public health campaigns that explicitly or implicitly stigmatize higher-weight individuals are proliferating.Underlying this trend is an assumption that weight stigma can promote healthier behavioral change.Substantial research comprising empirical studies, narrative reviews, and meta-analyses has linked weightstigma to poorer psychological and physical health. While many studies have investigated how weightstigma affected health behaviors such as dieting and exercise, additional work is needed to understand thedirection and size of the relationship. Through a meta-analysis of 54 studies including over 40,000participants from 11 countries, we sought to present a precise estimate of the relationship between weightstigma and health behaviors and test potential moderators of the relationship. The results showed that weightstigma was positively related to unhealthy behaviors and negatively related to healthy behaviors. Theserelationships were consistent across stigma type (self-stigma vs. stigmatization), the focus of healthbehaviors (dietary behaviors vs. physical activities), and sample characteristics.