Weight is not beauty. This is a hill I will die on. Where weight impacts health, that is different.
The toxic culture surrounding body image and weight shaming means that when patients do need to be weighed for necessary medical reasons (safe prescribing and treatment monitoring are among those reasons), it can be very stressful or triggering. Especially if patients have previously experience weight bias or weight stigma in healthcare settings.
Solutions? Firstly, I always ask patients if it is okay if we check their weight and why we need it.
1) Blind weighing – I offer to let patients stop onto the scales backwards or simply shield the display with a piece of paper or my hand. I record the number and say nothing. (My patients often tell me that since, like many docs, I use kilograms that number means nothing to do them and they consider the kilograme display non-triggering! If they ask, I’ll calculate it back to “old money” – pounds/stone – if they want.)
2) Home monitoring: for patients who need or prefer home monitoring of weight for medical reasons, did you know you can purchase a scale without numbers? I’m a fan! You can set up with your doctor or dietitian to get the data. There are a few options out there. Some require WiFi and subscription to a portal. My current favourite generates a nonsense code for the patient, and they simply send me the code. I go into a portal to “translate” the code to their weight. I put the data into their chart, and if we need to change treatment, I then feedback to the patient on the treatment changes – not the weight.
0 Comments