Evidence of weight stigma and its harmful consequences have led to increased attention to the words that are used to talk about obesity and body weight, including calls for efforts to carefully consider weight‐related terminology and promote respectful language in the obesity and medical fields. Despite increased research studies examining people's preferences for specific words that describe body weight, there has been no systematic review to synthesize existing evidence on perceptions of and preferences for weight‐related terminology. To address this gap, the current systematic review identified 33 studies (23 quantitative, 10 qualitative) that examined people's preferences for weight‐related terminology in the current research literature (from 1999 to 2019). Across studies, findings generally suggest that neutral terminology (eg, “weight” or “unhealthy weight”) is preferred and that words like “obese” and “fat” are least acceptable, particularly in provider‐patient conversations about weight. However, individual variation in language preferences is evident across demographic characteristics like race/ethnicity, gender, and weight status. Of priority is future research that can improve upon the limited diversity of the existing literature, both with respect to sample diversity and the use of culturally relevant weight‐related terminology, which is currently lacking in measurement. Implications for patient‐provider communication and public health communication are discussed.

中文翻译：

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我们应该用什么词来谈论体重？定量和定性研究的系统综述，研究了与体重有关的术语的偏爱。

体重耻辱及其有害后果的证据已引起人们对用于谈论肥胖和体重的词语的关注度提高，包括呼吁努力认真考虑与体重有关的术语，并在肥胖和医学领域推广尊重语言。尽管有越来越多的研究研究人们对描述体重的特定单词的偏爱，但还没有系统的综述来综合有关体重相关术语的感知和偏爱的现有证据。为了弥补这一差距，当前的系统评价确定了33项研究（23项定量研究，10项定性研究），研究了人们对当前研究文献（1999年至2019年）中与体重相关的术语的偏好。在各种研究中，研究结果通常表明使用中性术语（例如，最好使用“体重”或“不健康的体重”，并且“肥胖”和“肥胖”等词语最不可接受，尤其是在提供者与患者有关体重的对话中。但是，在种族，种族，性别和体重状况等人口统计特征中，语言偏好的个体差异是显而易见的。当务之急是未来的研究，它可以改善现有文献的有限多样性，无论是样本多样性还是使用与文化相关的与体重相关的术语（目前在衡量上都缺乏）。讨论了对医患沟通和公共卫生沟通的意义。不同种族，种族，性别和体重状况等人口统计特征在语言偏好上存在个体差异。当务之急是未来的研究，它可以改善现有文献的有限多样性，无论是样本多样性还是使用与文化相关的与体重相关的术语（目前在衡量上都缺乏）。讨论了对医患沟通和公共卫生沟通的意义。不同种族，种族，性别和体重状况等人口统计特征在语言偏好上存在个体差异。当务之急是未来的研究，它可以改善现有文献的有限多样性，无论是样本多样性还是使用与文化相关的与体重相关的术语（目前在衡量上都缺乏）。讨论了对医患沟通和公共卫生沟通的意义。