ISSN 1662-4009 (online)

ey0020.9-18 | Patient Care: Bariatric Surgery, New Drugs, and Appropriate Language | ESPEYB20

9.18. Say what you mean, mean what you say: The importance of language in the treatment of obesity

N Fearon , A Sudlow , CW le Roux , DJ Pournaras , R Welbourn

Brief summary: This study investigated how frequently negative terminology such as ‘fail’ and ‘morbid obesity’ was used in scientific publications dealing with bariatric surgery in peer reviewed journals. 2.4% of the publications analyzed included the term ‘fail’ and 16.8% contained the term ‘morbid’ in conjunction with obesity. This study showed that negative language, blaming the patient for the lack of weight loss or weight regain, wa...