In medicine, words can be a drug that cures or a sharp scalpel that leaves a mark on the heart. And the white coats, faced with a patient already suffering from the difficult coexistence with the extra kilos, must choose well which ones to use. Pediatrician Italo Farnetani declares war on the words “obese and fat”. And he launches an appeal to his colleagues: “Delete those two terms from the dictionary of the doctor-patient interview. Better to use neutral words, as shown by all the research carried out over the last twenty years. Therefore talk about weight, possibly adding unhealthy weight, or inappropriate weight for height“, suggest.
The full professor of Pediatrics at the Ludes-United Campus of Malta University spoke about the theme of the relationship between Italian language and medicine at the National Conference of medical officers and health personnel of the Italian Red Cross, currently underway in Syracuse. Farnetani presented, he explains to time.news Salute, “a study conducted on the language to be adopted with patients, especially adolescent children, who are overweight or obese. Researches conducted all over the world since 2003 and confirmed by a work of the study group on obesity of the Italian Society of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology, which involved 17 Italian centers of pediatric endocrinology and saw the collaboration of 10 family pediatricians from Naples, also confirmed in Italy the need to modulate the words with which we address to these patients “.
The research, continues the pediatrician, “reaffirms the importance of the conversation between doctor and patient“. The expert points out how the terms obese or fat” determine the appearance of a sense of guilt on the part of the patient and are rich in a negative semantic value that not only evokes frustration but sometimes also recalls acts of bullying, derision . All this turns into the idea, on the part of the adolescent, that the cause of all his discomfort is precisely obesity. That’s why – he concludes – I stressed that choosing words well is not a “‘cosmetic'” operation aimed at seeking the ‘beautiful language’, but rather a tool to obtain greater collaboration from the patient and also a greater therapeutic response. “.