Avoiding the term ‘obesity’: An experimental study of the impact of doctors’ language on patients’ beliefs

Tailor, Anisha; Ogden, Jane

doi:10.1016/j.pec.2008.12.016

Cited by 50 publications

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“…32,33 Others studies have revealed that "obese" may be perceived as a negative term, 34,35 perhaps because of implications of more serious medical consequences and a sense of confusion it may invoke. 30 Among parents, in 1 qualitative study parents were found to prefer that physicians call their children "overweight" and "obese" instead of more colloquial terms (eg, "chubby" or "plump"), 36 and another reported study "obese" and "fat" were found to be parents' least preferred terms. 24 However, this issue remains poorly understood in the context of childhood obesity.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…28,29 Some research results suggest that the term "fat" is perceived to be pejorative or judgmental, and can increase anxiety and depression in those who are labeled this way. 30 Thus, this type of recommendation from a public health official may reinforce weight-based stigma and interfere with quality of care. 31 Little research has been performed to examine patient perceptions of weightrelated language.…”

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Parental Perceptions of Weight Terminology That Providers Use With Youth

2011

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OBJECTIVES: Little research has been performed to examine patient perceptions of weight-related language, especially related to childhood obesity. In this study we assessed parental perceptions of weight-based terminology used by health care providers to describe a child's excess weight and assessed perceived connotations associated with these terms including stigma, blame, and motivation to reduce weight. METHODS: A national sample of American parents with children aged 2 to 18 years (N = 445) completed an online survey to assess their perceptions of 10 common terms to describe excess body weight in youth (including “extremely obese,” “high BMI,” “weight problem,” “unhealthy weight,” “weight,” “heavy,” “obese,” “overweight,” “chubby,” and “fat”). Parents were asked to use a 5-point rating scale to indicate how much they perceived each term to be desirable, stigmatizing, blaming, or motivating to lose weight. RESULTS: Regression models revealed that the terms “weight” and “unhealthy weight” were rated as most desirable, and “unhealthy weight” and “weight problem” were rated as the most motivating to lose weight. The terms “fat,” “obese,” and “extremely obese” were rated as the most undesirable, stigmatizing, blaming, and least motivating. Parents' ratings were consistent across sociodemographic variables, body weight, and child's body weight. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study have important implications for the improvement of health care for youth with obesity; it may be advantageous for health care providers to use or avoid using specific weight-based language during discussions about body weight with families. Pediatricians play a key role in obesity prevention and treatment, but their efforts may be undermined by stigmatizing or offensive language that can hinder important discussions about children's health.

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Parental Perceptions of Weight Terminology That Providers Use With Youth

2011

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“…13 The parents of pediatric patients overwhelmingly preferred that physicians use the phrase "gaining too much weight" as compared with other options, including "overweight," when discussing their child's weight. 14 Use of shared ter- 16 found that physicians were more likely to use a euphemism with patients (eg, "Your weight may be damaging your health.") than the term "obesity."…”

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“…15 Although previous work suggests that patients prefer some terms used by physicians over others, there is less information available regarding what terms physicians use during clinical encounters. Among a small sample (n ϭ 19) of general practitioners, Tailor and Ogden 16 found that physicians were more likely to use a euphemism with patients (eg, "Your weight may be damaging your health.") than the term "obesity."…”

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“…For instance, patients with a body mass index (BMI) Ͻ30 kg/m 2 found physicians' use of the term "obesity" more emotionally distressing, whereas obese patients (ie, BMI Ͼ30 kg/m 2 ) found the euphemism "your weight may be damaging your health" more distressing. 16 In addition, research indicates that physicians are not immune to the negative, implicit biases held against overweight and obese individuals. 10,17 Also, physicians may spend less time with obese patients than with normal weight patients.…”

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What Words Should We Use When Discussing Excess Weight?

Dutton¹,

Tan²,

Perri³

et al. 2010

The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine

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Background: There is limited research on how patients prefer physicians to communicate about the topic of obesity, and there is even less understanding of which terms physicians most commonly use.Methods: In this cross-sectional, nonrandom sampling study, patients who were seeking treatment for weight loss rated the desirability of 12 terms to describe excess weight, and physicians rated the likelihood with which they would use those terms during clinical encounters. Participants rated terms on a 5-point scale, with ؊2 representing "very undesirable" or "definitely would not use" and ؉2 representing "very desirable" or "definitely would use."Results: Patients (n ‫؍‬ 143; mean age, 46.8 years; mean body mass index, 36.9 kg/m 2 ) rated "weight" (mean ؎ SD) as the most desirable term (1.13 ؎ 1.10), although it did not significantly differ from 5 other terms provided. They rated "fatness" (؊1.30 ؎ 1.22) as the most undesirable term, although this rating did not differ significantly from 4 other terms. Physicians affiliated with a community-based medical school (n ‫؍‬ 108; mean age, 48.8 years; 79.6% primary care specialty) were most likely to use "weight" (1.42 ؎ 0.89), which was significantly different from ratings for all other terms. They were least likely to use "fatness" (؊1.74 ؎ 0.59), although this rating did not differ significantly from 3 other terms.Conclusion: Physicians generally reported that they use terminology that patients had rated more favorably, and they tend to avoid terms that patients may find undesirable. Understanding the preferences and terminology used by patients and physicians is an important initial step to ensure that communications related to obesity and weight loss are efficient and effective. The provision of weight loss counseling by physicians in primary care settings offers a potentially effective approach to combating the problem of overweight and obesity.1-4 However, physicians often neglect broaching the topics of obesity and weight loss during primary care encounters. 3,[5][6][7][8] Barriers that may hinder physicians' provision of weight-loss counseling include time constraints, lack of reimbursement, and perceptions that treatment will be ineffective. In addition, physicians may feel ill-equipped to address these issues. 5,9 -12 Despite these barriers, overweight and obese patients may desire greater involvement of their primary care physician in weight-loss counseling and treatment efforts. 6,7 Until recently, however, few studies have examined how patients would prefer their physicians to discuss the topic of obesity. In one study, obese patients rated the term "weight" as significantly more desirable than a variety of terms physicians could use to describe excess weight; they rated "obesity," "excess fat," and "fatness" as the most undesirable terms physicians could use. 13 The parents of pediatric patients overwhelmingly preferred that physicians use the phrase "gaining too much weight" as compared with other options, including "overweight," when discussing their chi...

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‘A diabetic’ versus ‘a person with diabetes’: the impact of language on beliefs about diabetes

Ogden

Parkes

2013

European Diabetes Nursing

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The photoinduced decarbonylation of an α‐diketone adduct generates 2,6‐dimethoxyanthracene in the ground state. The photochemical product can also absorb the incoming photons and transfer its excitation energy to another molecule of the reactant to establish an autocatalytic loop. In the presence of silver nanoparticles, the efficiency of energy transfer increases significantly with a concomitant acceleration of the autocatalytic transformation. In principle, this mechanism to establish kinetic amplification can be extended to any photoactivatable fluorophore, if reactant and product can be engineered to satisfy the spectral requirements necessary for energy transfer. Furthermore, the resulting photochemical replicators can be exploited to monitor the influence of metallic nanostructures on photochemical reactions with convenient fluorescence measurements. In turn, the associated plasmonic effects offer the opportunity to accelerate autocatalysis with nanoscale resolution.

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Avoiding the term ‘obesity’: An experimental study of the impact of doctors’ language on patients’ beliefs

Cited by 50 publications

References 12 publications

Parental Perceptions of Weight Terminology That Providers Use With Youth

Parental Perceptions of Weight Terminology That Providers Use With Youth

What Words Should We Use When Discussing Excess Weight?

‘A diabetic’ versus ‘a person with diabetes’: the impact of language on beliefs about diabetes

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