Potilaiden kokemuksia stigmatisoivasta painopuheesta terveydenhuollon vuorovaikutustilanteissa

The stigma of obesity or fatness is an unwanted negative social stigma. The emergence of stigma is influenced by society's attitudes, and moral perceptions of people with obesity. Patients’ lived experiences of stigmatizing weight-related conversation in Finnish healthcare interactions have hardly been studied. The aim of this study was to examine patients’ lived experiences of stigmatizing weight-related conversation in healthcare.A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was adopted in the study. The data collection was carried out as individual semi-structured interviews of five participants. The data were analysed according to interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).Based on the analysis, two sets of thematic meaning structures of the lived-through experiences were identified: 1) a lack of feelings of trust and safety in interaction and 2) a threat to health and well-being. The lack of trust and safety were meaningfully related to experiences of being subject to prejudices, healthcare professionals’ inappropriate behaviour, experiences of not being heard, experiences of receiving insufficient help, and experiences of weight-centered nature of healthcare professionals’ communications. The threat to health and well-being, reflected experiences of negative feelings, preparing for weight-related conversations, experiences related to distortion of eating behaviour and body image, and experiences of oneself as an obese person. Both thematic meaning structures included experiences of avoiding healthcare and treatments.This research fostered understanding on stigmatizing weight-related conversation in healthcare as experienced by patients. Based on the findings, we propose that weight-related conversations with patients should be conducted in a tactful, trustful, and safe manner, without stigmatizing presuppositions. However, we need further understanding of the ways to reduce obesity stigma in healthcare both at evidence-informed policy and practice level