The Need for People-First Language in our Obesity Journal

Dr. William Dietz is correct in pointing out that our support for people-first language in Obesity has been more a case of “talking the talk” than “walking the walk.” We thank Dr. Dietz for bringing this important issue to our attention. We will institute the following changes in our policies for both potential authors and accepted manuscripts. First, we will amend our Author Guidelines, Submission Checklist, and Ethical Policies documents to inform authors of our support for people-first language, including our position that "obese” should not be used to describe individuals or groups of individuals. Second, our editorial team will work with authors to change “obese” as an adjective to terms such as “people with obesity” and “populations with obesity.” Such changes will take time and will need careful consideration from both the editorial team and the authors in order to “walk the walk.”