engleski

Adressing to the Person with Obesity: How to Tell the Truth without Hurting the Patient’s Feelings

Background: Many individuals with obesity are facing stigmatization and discrimination through exposure to undesirable weight-related terms. The impact of the use of inappropriate language towards person with obesity can possess numerous consequences including increased risk of psychological distress, changed eating habits and poor outcomes in weight-loss treatment. The primary aim of this study is to find the most acceptable term (s) that describes patients who have, according to the body mass index (BMI) classification, excess body weight. Participants and Methods: A total of 200 students, 154 females (median BMI 20.9 kg/m2) and 46 males (median BMI 24.0 kg/m2), attending 4th - 6th year at the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb answered the online questionnaire using SurveyMonkey® tool. The questionnaire was set up with a variety of responses including yes/no responses, writing in specific data or selecting one or 6 adequate options. Four Croatian terms describing excess body weight were evaluated (‘debeo/la’ equivalent to ‘fat’, ‘adipozan/na’ equivalent to ‘adipose’, ‘pretio/la’ equivalent to ‘obese’ and ‘bucko/a’ equivalent to ‘chubby’). Six different levels of agreement were offered to the student (‘I do not agree at all’, ‘I mainly disagree’, ‘I somewhat disagree’, ‘I somewhat agree’, ‘I mainly agree’, ‘I agree completely’) as acceptable/unacceptable in healthcare vs. everyday surrounding. Their perception of offensiveness was analysed also regarding the gender and their BMI. Results: In our analysis we found the terms ‘adipose-adipozan’ and ‘obese-pretio’ were acceptable in the communication between patients and healthcare workers and in communication in everyday surrounding. Both male and female students share the same opinion when it comes to using the term ‘chubby-bucko’ in the healthcare system ; it is inappropriate. The term ‘fat-debeo’ was considered inadequate by the most of overweight students. Female students considered the term ‘fat-debeo’ inappropriate in interaction with healthcare workers, while male students didn’t find it offensive. Conclusion: Attitudes of young people, future medical professionals, not burdened with former experience toward particular terminology help us with the question how to choose the adequate terminology while having in mind that the words describing excess of body weight have a huge impact on the patient. The recommendation is to use terms ‘adipose-adipozan’ and ‘obese-pretio’, to avoid colloquial terms. The term ‘fat-debeo’ should be used with caution.

obesity ; communication ; terminology

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