Patient voice critical to raising awareness about obesity
Providers should listen to patient voices when treating people with obesity and allow their experiences to factor in research and clinical practice, according to a speaker at ObesityWeek Interactive.
“There are about 100 million people now in the U.S. living with obesity, and more than a half a billion around the world, yet it is one of the most misunderstood and stigmatized diseases,” Joseph Nadglowski, president and CEO of the Obesity Action Coalition, said during a presentation. “Somehow, in our effort to make obesity bad, we made the people with obesity bad. The only way we are going to fix that is amplifying the voices of people living with obesity.”
Erasing the stigma surrounding obesity is something all providers should focus on. Nadglowski noted that treatments exist for obesity, but access is limited throughout the United States. He said one factor for this is the general lack of awareness of the experiences of people with obesity. Nadglowski added that obesity does not discriminate, with it affecting people from all ethnicities and sociodemographic backgrounds and is something many can relate to.
“The reality is, we are actually working to try and better these folks’ lives, but we often don’t ask them, what does it take to better your life,” Nadglowski said.
The mission of the organization Nadglowski works for, the Obesity Action Coalition, is to ensure people with obesity are empowered to speak up and share their story through education, advocacy and support.
Nadglowski said all health care professionals can play a role in lifting the voices of individuals with obesity and raising awareness about the disease. On a smaller scale, providers can use patient voices to improve their own practice. Nadglowski recommended providers focus on listening to the voices of individuals with obesity and for researchers to include those voices in their projects. He also emphasized the importance of understanding that every person’s experience is unique and expressing empathy when discussing weight with individuals.
“Remember that all patients are human and have most likely dealt with weight bias in every facet of their life from childhood to adulthood,” Nadglowski said. “Their voice matters, including their voice in your clinical practice, in your research, in your public health activities. This is essential. If we really want to get our hands around this obesity epidemic and finally make some progress in addressing it, it’s important that we listen to the people that are affected.”
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Nadglowski J. Amplifying the patient voice. Presented at: ObesityWeek Interactive; Nov. 2, 2020 (virtual meeting).
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