OBESITY AWARENESS AND SENSITIVITY
Language counts in reducing weight-associated stigma
Many of us know that being overweight can lead to adverse health conditions, such as heart and liver disease, diabetes and stroke. But the disease of obesity can cause more than physical difficulties. It can also lead to social stigma.
Research shows that negative and inaccurate assumptions others make about people with obesity can include viewing them as lazy or undisciplined in their lifestyle and personal choices based on their body weight and appearance.
In reality, a person’s weight can result from many factors — including their genetics, home environment, cultural influences and socioeconomic status — that are not entirely in their control.
Unfortunately, health care providers can also fall into the stigmatization trap. Studies show that doctors may spend less time educating patients with obesity about their health and are more likely to rate their encounters as ineffective than they would with healthy-weight patients.
At UF Health, health care providers are urged to check preconceptions and treat all patients with dignity and respect. Gwen Crispell, M.S.N., R.N., C.B.N., the metabolic and bariatric nurse coordinator for the UF Health Weight Loss Surgery Center, encourages health care providers to acknowledge their own bias.
“A lot of people think they don’t have a bias,” she said, “but a lot of our conversations are judgmental. You can say ‘The sky is pretty,’ and you’re making a judgment.”
Negativity about weight can be expressed unintentionally through insensitive language, Crispell said. A research study confirms the power of language, especially “Bad words” (the title of the research abstract), in caring for patients in the field of obesity.
Crispell uses this research to guide obesity sensitivity training among faculty and staff. She has learned from patients whose first-hand experiences confirm they are treated with greater respect and positive attention following successful weight-loss surgery when their body mass index, or BMI, is reduced to a healthy range.
She compares this to other visual cues that trigger stigma behaviors.
“When I have my white lab coat on, I’m treated differently. I’m the same person — I’m not any less intelligent — but people treat me differently,” she said. “It’s the same with losing weight.”
We have a UF Health Shands Core Policy CP02.072 “to respect the rights of all patients regardless of body weight.” Our goal is to help staff be aware and sensitive to our own biases and check our behavior to better support our patients and each other.
