The association between higher body weight and stigmatizing language documented in hospital birth admission notes
Main finding · Any stigmatizing language documentedResult — go to the resultAdjusted odds ratio 1.10 95% CI 1.01–1.20Authors' conclusion
Women with higher body weight experience stigma in clinical documentation. Findings support the need for clinician training in equitable documentation and the removal of stigmatizing terms from clinic documents and workflows to promote perinatal health equity.
Study context
- Population
- Women >20 weeks of gestation admitted for birth to two large metropolitan hospitals in the Northeast United States, 2017–2019
- Exposure
- Higher body weight vs no higher body weight
- Outcome
- Presence of any stigmatizing language documented in the clinical note
- Follow-up
- Hospital birth admission
Methodological detailstwo hospitals, electronic health records (EHR) data
- Two hospitals
- EHR data
Main finding
Any stigmatizing language documented · birth hospitalization
Adjusted odds ratio
1.10
95% CI 1.01–1.20
Higher body weightvs Without higher body weight
aOR 1.10 (95% CI 1.01–1.20)
As reported in the abstract
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | aOR (95% CI) | |
|---|---|---|
| Language from the marginalized language/identities categoryMore likely with higher body weight | 1.38 (1.20–1.59) | |
| 0.512Adjusted odds ratio (log scale) |
Original publication
The association between higher body weight and stigmatizing language documented in hospital birth admission notes. Int J Obes (Lond). Published 13 January 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →