Weight Based Terminology

Puhl RM, Peterson JL, Luedicke J. Parental perceptions of weight terminology that providers use with youth. Pediatrics. 2011;128:e786-e793<br /><br /><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I came across an article from Medscape that had to do with doctors addressing obesity or overweight with their young(child) patients.  I had just posted my comments about kids and calories when the Medscape Week In Review landed in my inbox, so I saved it.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I took a break from my studies today, just to give it a quick read for the purpose of summarizing it here.  Well, of course, the advice to physicians comes from the results of a research study.  A survey based one at that (my favorite).  So you know I had to track it down and read about the sample, methods and data analysis.  I am a nerd that way.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">These tangents were fine when I was in Florida, but are an indulgence with a price these days.  </span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So bottom line:</span></div><ul style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><li><span style="font-size: large;">docs need to address the issue because overweight/obesity lead to adverse  psychological and physical outcomes (teasing, alienation, disease)</span></li><li><span style="font-size: large;">parents respond differently to the language doctors use</span></li><li><span style="font-size: large;">the least stigmatizing or blaming terminology should be used - suggestions are based on the survey responses of nearly 500 parents  (70% of the sample was white and the majority had more than a HS education) </span></li><li><span style="font-size: large;">the words used (along with some personal traits of the parents) has an impact on the parents response to the physician's assessment</span></li><li><span style="font-size: large;">even when the doctors used the words that the parents found the most blaming or stigmatizing the majority (71%) still said that they would encourage their children to lose weight</span></li><li><span style="font-size: large;">the researcher is concerned that other parents will either find another doctor, not follow up with health care, or worse - put their child on an extreme diet</span></li></ul><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The survey results found that the terms the parents found most motivating (for weight loss) and least blaming were "weight problem", "unhealthy weight" or just "weight."</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The words that were most stigmatizing and least helpful were "obese", "fat" and "extremely obese."<br />My favorite way to say it is "unhealthy weight."  I think that parents need to hear the connection between weight and health.  </span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The responses or answers were compared by some demographics and other traits (called psychographics).  For example, did the choice of most helpful response (unhealthy weight) change based on a persons race, gender, income, education level, own weight status, history of personal victimization or child's victimization, or the parents score on the fat phobic scale.  Yeah, thought that last one might get you.  I looked it up and it is attached below.  </span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The answers were pretty consistent by all traits with only subtle differences noted.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here is a link to the <a href="http://www.yaleruddcenter.org/resources/bias_toolkit/toolkit/Module-1/1-08-SelfAssessmentTools/1-0808-FatPhobia.pdf" target="_blank">Fat Phobia Scale</a> (I would call it the fat negativity scale myself) </span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here is the <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/128/4/e786.abstract?sid=427c7ad0-ca12-438d-8910-a2fe07ac5be3" target="_blank">summary</a> for the research article by Dr. Puhl. </span></div>

Weight Based Terminology

Puhl RM, Peterson JL, Luedicke J. Parental perceptions of weight terminology that providers use with youth. Pediatrics. 2011;128:e786-e793...

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