Researchers at the University of Galway say that obesity should be renamed to help public understanding and diagnosis of the disease.
A study by researchers from University of Galway and UCC found that conflicting understandings of the word ‘obesity’ jeopardise diagnosis and treatment.
They are calling for the condition to be renamed in order to help the public and policymakers to better understand the disease, and drive advances to treat and prevent it.
Published in Obesity Reviews, their study highlights ongoing confusion about the term ‘obesity’, which currently can refer to the disease of obesity or to a BMI range, or a combination of the two.
Professor Francis Finucane, Consultant Endocrinologist and Professor of Medicine in the University of Galway, and Dr Margaret Steele,postdoctoral researcher in UCC, explored different or conflicting understandings of the term ‘obesity’.
The researchers suggest it is time to reconsider whether the term ‘obesity’ conveys the reality of this complex disease that centres on environmental, genetic, physiological, behavioural and developmental factors, not on body weight or on BMI.
Professor Francis Finucane described new Irish Medical Council guidance warning doctors against using Ozempic for obesity as morally problematic. “Semaglutide 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’t make behavioural change unnecessary, nor do they make it easy – they just make it possible.”
The researchers point out that this is very different from celebrities using drugs like semaglutide to become ‘fashionably’ thin.
Dr Margaret Steele said, “Our 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 ‘adiposity-based chronic disease’ could more clearly convey the nature of this disease, and avoid the confusion and stigma that may occur if we keep using the term ‘obesity’, which has become synonymous with body size.”
