Dodging Obesity: Euphemisms Don’t Help

The language of obesity is a tricky business. Nobody likes being called obese. But it doesn’t stop there. Common wisdom tells clinicians to be very careful about the O-word in any form. Obesity clinics don’t tend to have long lines of patients waiting at the door. Weight management clinics attract more clients. However, new research suggests that euphemisms might not help.

Language for Understanding Obesity

Understanding a health condition is tough when you can’t talk about it. So Christina Hopkins and Gary Bennett asked 436 adults with overweight or obesity about three different clinical encounters. The descriptions randomly varied the use of four different weight-related terms: weight, BMI, obesity, or fat.

Afterward, they asked questions to measure self-efficacy, understanding of obesity, and interest in clinical care. Of course, fat was the least helpful word. It got in the way of understanding the condition. But actually naming obesity turned out to be helpful.

Using the O-word gave respondents a greater sense of self-efficacy. They felt more control over the condition. Hopkins and Bennett concluded that euphemisms don’t help. If you want to deal with a condition, you need to talk about it.

Click here for the study. You can find more on the sensitive language of obesity here and here.

Dodgeball, photograph © kevinzahri / flickr

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September 29, 2018