Health Equity · 5 authors, 7 centres
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This study conducted a content analysis of 140 graphical abstracts from a medical journal and found they disproportionately depicted male and light-skinned bodies, linked large body size with disease, and overrepresented genetic factors while underrepresenting social environmental factors.
The study performed a systematic content analysis of 140 graphical abstracts published in the Journal of Internal Medicine between February 2019 and May 2020. The analysis found graphical abstracts disproportionately emphasized male bodies (59.5%) and light-skinned phenotypes (91.3%), stigmatized large body size, and overrepresented genetic causes of disease (50.7% of graphical surface area) while underrepresenting the social environment (0.4%). The authors conclude that these visual biases may promote normative white male bodies, reinforce weight stigma, and promote reductionist models of disease that undermine health equity.
