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The word ‘obese can be used by Doctors.
– Reported, May 16, 2012
But in these times of delicate sensibilities, doctors are now being advised to think of alternative ways of telling people they are overweight. According to draft (or should that be daft?) guidelines announced last week by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), the term obese is now prohibited for fear that larger patients might be offended by it.
Instead, Nice recommends advising corpulent patients that they should get down to a healthier weight. They claim that the term obese might be unhelpful and demeaning. Im lost to see how the term is unhelpful. To me, it seems very helpful when describing someone who is fat. Everyone understands what a doctor means when they use the term and the fact that it might offend some people suggests that it communicates something about the person so effectively that they might not want to hear it.
While Id never want to upset a patient unnecessarily, sometimes a doctor is the only person who is objective and detached enough to tell someone plainly what others can see. As a doctor, I cant stop using a medical word because some people might not like it. Using woolly words instead simply means they dont have to confront reality.
No one likes to hear the word cancer, but Im not going to stop diagnosing it just because it upsets people. Why is it different from informing them that they are obese? There is no value judgment inherent in the word. It is a medical definition that describes someone whose weight has entered a range clinically associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality.
Often doctors hide behind medical terms to avoid saying what they mean, usually to save embarrassment. Using a bit of Latin preserves everyones dignity. Puritis ani sounds far more pleasant and respectable than itchy bottom. Whats happening here is that a medical term, obesity, has entered the common parlance and become laden with negative cultural associations. The public now associate it with loss of control, with greed and gluttony. This is grossly unfair. I think people should have the choice to be overweight, but that doesnt stop it being the responsibility of the doctor to make them aware of the risk. To fail to do so would be negligent. Watering down the phrases will mean people fail to grasp the situation.
The fact that obese is such a culturally potent word is precisely why doctors should use it people understand its seriousness. What Nice is skirting round is what many doctors, nurses and dieticians will confirm; people dont like being told they are overweight.
Doctors who pander to this head-in-the-sand attitude are also deceitful. A few months ago, I attended a panel discussion at Barts Medical School in the East End of London. We were discussing the changing portrayal of doctors and health in film as part of a programme organised by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. One of the films was A Cruel Kindness, made in 1967. It was targeted at mothers, to educate them about childhood obesity, and advised them not to overfeed their children. Unless your boy stops over-eating and takes more exercise, hell grow into a fat man
that puts a strain on his heart and lungs, said one doctor to a childs horrified mother.
Afterwards, many of the doctors in the audience said they wished we could speak in such unconstrained terms to our patients. It might not be what people want to hear, but it is honest. My concern is that any meaningful message about obesity is lost altogether.
Credits: The Telegraph
More Information: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthadvice/9260211/Doctors-have-the-right-to-use-the-word-obese.html
