A total of 520 case studies were completed. Although responding to all questions was not mandatory, there were less than 3% incomplete responses to quantitative questions (including the Anti-Fat Attitudes questionnaire) and 31% for free-text responses, which was sufficient for all power selleck calculations. Anti-Fat Attitudes questionnaire

results, presented in Figure 2, indicated negative attitudes by the participants towards people who are overweight, with a mean item score of 3.2 (SD 1.1), where results greater than zero indicate weight stigma.29 These results are considerably higher than other Australian and international Anti-Fat Attitudes questionnaire findings from 2001,38 and similar to Australians tested in 2007.32 The Willpower subscale had a mean item ABT-199 datasheet score of 4.9 (SD 1.5) and the Fear subscale a mean item score of 3.9 (SD 1.8), which were relatively higher mean scores than the Dislike subscale of 2.1 (SD 1.2). This finding of overtly negative attitudes towards people who are overweight or obese indicates that physiotherapists demonstrate explicit weight stigma. There was minimal indication in the clinical parameters tested in the case studies, such as the total treatment time or the hands-on treatment time, that patients in different BMI categories would be treated differently.

These data are presented in Table 2, Table 3 and Table 4. The only differences that reached significance were three (6%) of the answers to questions about types of treatment likely to be given. This indicates a minimal difference in (hypothetical) treatment of patients

due to the BMI. Of note, however, for case study 2, general health advice was prescribed in 46% of the obese patients, which was significantly greater than 24% in the normal weight case study presentation (p < 0.01). This could indicate implicit weight stigma, in that physiotherapists may assume patients who are obese are less well informed about general health than their normal weight counterparts. There was no indication of implicit weight stigma in findings from participants’ responses to questions (for wording see Appendix 1) about their level of professional satisfaction (p = 0.45) or enjoyment (p = 0.98) when treating patients in the case studies, with no difference found between normal and overweight patients. However, when participants Sclareol were asked to rate how similar they felt to case study patients, participants felt more similar (p = 0.05) to patients who are overweight (mode ‘not similar’) in comparison to normal weight (mode ‘not similar’). Feeling similar to someone has been correlated with liking them, 39 so this finding on its own would not indicate negative attitudes, although this may fit with the ‘jolly fat’ stereotype, 40 so may indicate weight stigma. Analysis of the two questions requiring free-text responses identified that conversations about weight are likely to occur.