Doctors who use terms like “obesity” and “fatness” may alienate their patients and prevent them from having healthy discussions about their weight, new research from the University of Pennsylvania suggests. According to PostMedia News, these “undesirable terms” often carry a negative and judgmental stigma.
To reach their conclusions, researchers at the university’s Center for Weight and Eating Disorders asked 390 obese patients in the Philadelphia area to rate words and expressions relating to their weight from the most to least offensive. Terms included: weight, heaviness, obesity, BMI, excess weight, fatness, excess fat, large size, unhealthy body weight, weight problem and unhealthy BMI.
“Obese” and “fat” headed the list, and expressions like “you are lazy” and “you are way too fat” also ranked as undesirable.
Lead author Sheri Volger said she hopes that by identifying how people prefer to discuss their weight, doctors can become more comfortable in approaching the subject with their patients.
“Very few physicians—sometimes I’ve seen numbers as low as 12 percent—counsel their obese patients to lose weight,” Volger said. “By identifying how patients prefer to be talked to, we’re hoping to facilitate the dialogue.”
