Research suggests health professionals should choose wise words when talking about weight

An online survey of about 3,000 adults in the United Kingdom suggests that health professionals prefer to use the words “weight,” “unhealthy weight,” and “overweight” when discussing weight status. The child is “fat”, “oversized”, or “plus size”.

Presented at the European and International Conference on Obesity (ECOICO 2020), held online 1 to 4 September this year, the study also investigated people’s emotional response to language. Healthcare professional The terms “fat” and “super obesity” cause the strongest feelings of anger and disgust in adults living with them obesityThe sadness, anger, and disgust of parents of children who are overweight or obese.

“Our research shows the importance of the language used by Health care Experts, and in some less preferred terms, Negative emotions “It includes the sadness and anger between the adults who live with obesity and the parents of children who live with overweight and obesity,” said Dr. Stuart William Flint, who led the study.

“It is estimated that about two-thirds of the UK’s population live overweight or obese (BMI 25 kg/m² Above all, it is essential that health professionals consider using preferred terms and make conscious efforts. It’s a favorite of people weightRelated terms in the consultation that need to be discussed about weight. “

“Our findings are an advancement of our current knowledge of weight-related terminology and work with people with obesity,” said Dr Adrian Brown, co-author of University College London at the UK. It should be considered by an expert.”

Due to the limitations of previous studies involving small sample sizes and sample composition (and hence representativeness), people are not well aware of weight-related terms, which makes it the most appropriate choice for medical professionals to use. You may have uncertainty about the term.

To provide more evidence, researchers conducted an online survey recruiting adults over 18 through social media advertising, mailing list distribution, and word-of-mouth. Total 2,915 adults (average age 49 years, female 96%, average BMI 31.5 kg/m3)²) Done Online surveyAsk for comments on 22 terms healthcare professionals may use to explain (eg, fat, weight problems, higher weight, obesity) Weight condition, 5 point scale (strongly disagree). The survey also asked participants for their rating Emotional reaction Use these terms with seven core emotions (ie, happiness, sadness, anger, contempt, disgust, surprise, fear). A parent, a respondent (856), was asked to repeat the same question and explain the weight of the child. Finally, all respondents completed the modified Weight Bias Internalization (WBIS-M) scale.

Researchers have found that adults perceive the terms “hyperobesity,” “chubby,” and “oversized” to be the most unfavorable for medical professionals to use when discussing weight. did. In adults, the strongest feelings of disgust, contempt, and anger were associated with health care professionals using the terms “super obesity,” “chubby,” and “fat,” respectively.

Parents tell their health workers their “weight” and “Unhealthy weight“And BMI”. Mild, angry, and disgust feelings were most frequently reported depending on the use of the words “high BMI,” “fat,” and “super obesity.”

Overall, sadness was the most commonly reported emotion associated with all weight-related terms.

Mean WBIS-M scores were relatively high among study samples and higher among respondents with high BMI. Thus, people with higher BMI internalized negative weight stereotypes and subsequently self-deprecated.

Provided by the European Society for the study of obesity