What's in a Name? Patients’ Preferred Terms for Describing Obesity

AbstractObjective: To determine the terms that obese individuals find undesirable or desirable for their doctors to use to describe excess weight of 27.3 kg (i.e., 50 lb) or more.Research Methods and Procedures: The study surveyed 167 women and 52 men with a mean BMI of 35.3 and 35.1 kg/m2, respectively, who participated in one of two randomized trials on the treatment of obesity. An additional sample consisted of 105 extremely obese women (i.e., mean BMI of 52.5 kg/m2) who sought bariatric surgery. Patients rated the desirability of 11 terms used to describe excess weight. Ratings were made on five‐point scales, ranging from very desirable (+2) to neutral (0) to very undesirable (−2).Results: Obese women (N = 167) rated as undesirable to very undesirable the terms fatness (mean rating = −1.8), excess fat (−1.4), obesity (−1.4), and large size (−1.3). These four terms were rated as significantly more (all p ≤ 0.001) undesirable than the seven remaining descriptors, which included weight, heaviness, BMI, excess weight, unhealthy body weight, weight problem, and unhealthy BMI. The term weight received a mean rating of 1.1, a value significantly more (all p ≤ 0.001) desirable than that for all other descriptors. Highly similar ratings of the terms were provided by obese men (N = 52) and extremely obese women (N = 105).Discussion: Practitioners may wish to avoid the use of potentially derogatory terms such as fatness and obesity when broaching the topic of weight management with patients.