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General Principles: Body Habitus and What Is “Normal”

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The Patient-Centered Approach to Medical Note-Writing

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Abstract

Body habitus is a source of stigma for many patients, with harm furthered by stigmatizing terminology and provider bias. In this chapter we review the definition and meaning of body habitus, issues with terminology and coding, and patient preferences for terms related to weight. The concept of normality in medicine has different meanings in different contexts. We review alternative language to consider when documenting something to be “normal” when discussing test results, physical examination findings, and the definition of disease states.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Scott Hagan, Sheida Aalami & Christopher J. Wong

Authors
  1. Scott Hagan
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  2. Sheida Aalami
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  3. Christopher J. Wong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Scott Hagan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Christopher J. Wong

  2. Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Sara L. Jackson

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© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Hagan, S., Aalami, S., Wong, C.J. (2023). General Principles: Body Habitus and What Is “Normal”. In: Wong, C.J., Jackson, S.L. (eds) The Patient-Centered Approach to Medical Note-Writing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43633-8_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43633-8_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-43632-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-43633-8

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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