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Obesity should be renamed to improve treatment and prevention
- Researchers call for clearer messaging to help public and policymakers to better understand the disease of obesity.
- Conflicting understandings of the word 鈥榦besity鈥� jeopardise diagnosis and treatment.
- Clinicians are expressing concern at shortages of drugs which have been approved to treat obesity.
We must change the way we talk about obesity to improve public understanding of the disease, according to a new study.
Researchers at 深夜亚洲福利久久 College Cork (UCC) and 深夜亚洲福利久久 of Galway are calling for 鈥榦besity鈥� to be renamed in order to help the public and policymakers to better understand the disease of obesity, and drive advances to treat and prevent it.
Published in , their study highlights ongoing confusion about the term 鈥榦besity鈥�, which currently can refer to the disease of obesity or to a BMI range, or a combination of the two.
Dr Margaret Steele, a postdoctoral researcher in UCC鈥檚 School of Public Health, and Professor Francis Finucane, Consultant Endocrinologist and Professor of Medicine in the 深夜亚洲福利久久 of Galway, explored different or conflicting understandings of the term 鈥榦besity鈥�.
The researchers suggest it is time to reconsider whether the term 鈥榦besity鈥� conveys the reality of this complex disease that centres on environmental, genetic, physiological, behavioural and developmental factors, not on body weight or on BMI.
New appetite-control medications are generating phenomenal demand worldwide, but patients with obesity may be sent to the back of the queue on the mistaken assumption that they do not need the medication as much as patients with diabetes. The researchers suggest that clearer terminology could play a role in addressing this inequity.
Dr Margaret Steele said: 鈥淥ur focus should be on the underlying pathophysiology and not on body size. For people with the disease of obesity, treatment is not optional or cosmetic. A different diagnostic term such as 鈥榓diposity-based chronic disease鈥� could more clearly convey the nature of this disease, and avoid the confusion and stigma that may occur if we keep using the term 鈥榦besity鈥�, which has become synonymous with body size.鈥�
Professor Francis Finucane described new Irish Medical Council guidance warning doctors against using Ozempic for obesity as morally problematic.
Professor Finucane said: 鈥淪emaglutide is approved as a treatment for obesity, just as it is for diabetes. There is a deeply stigmatising idea out there that people with obesity are looking for an easy way out, that these medicines provide a low-effort alternative to healthy diet and lifestyle. But for people living with the disease of obesity, these drugs don鈥檛 make behavioural change unnecessary, nor do they make it easy 鈥� they just make it possible.鈥�
The researchers point out that this is very different from celebrities using drugs like semaglutide to become 鈥渇ashionably鈥� thin.
Dr Steele said: 鈥淭his is why we need to clarify what we mean by obesity. Many of the people we see on TikTok or Instagram reporting on their semaglutide journeys do not have the disease of obesity. When we talk about treating and preventing obesity, our focus should be on healthy food environments, and appropriate treatment for people living with chronic metabolic diseases. We hope this new research will help drive home the point that this is about helping people live well, not making everyone skinny.鈥�