Exclusive: Research shows some people skip medical appointments because they feel humiliated by staff
Doctors and nurses often “weight-shame” people who are overweight or obese, leaving them feeling anxious, depressed and wrongly blaming themselves for their condition, research has found.
Dr Anastasia Kalea and colleagues at University College London analysed 25 previous studies about “weight stigma”, undertaken in different countries, involving 3,554 health professionals. They found “extensive evidence [of] strong weight bias” among a wide range of health staff, including doctors, nurses, dieticians, psychologists and even obesity specialists.
“An example is a GP that will unconsciously show that they do not believe that the patient complies with their eat less/exercise more regime they were asked to follow as they are not losing weight. The language health professionals use with such patients is vital to building a rapport, getting them to engage in attempts to reduce their weight and avoiding them feeling blamed for it. “Using patient-first language when they refer to someone living with being overweight or obesity is the beginning. It is ‘a patient with obesity’, not ‘an obese patient’. It is ‘someone who is managing their weight’, not ‘struggling with their weight’. It is more than semantics.
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