How Forcefully Should Clinicians Encourage Treatment When Disagreement Persists About Obesity Risk?

Pediatric obesity is a major public health problem, and weight reduction in children and adolescents with obesity is associated with improvement in health outcomes. This case of an adolescent diagnosed with obesity whose mother disagrees with the diagnosis illustrates challenges often encountered in clinical practice, including (1) diagnosing a disease in an asymptomatic patient whose future risk for negative health outcomes is uncertain, (2) addressing ethical implications of naming a stigmatizing disease, and (3) resolving conflicting goals and opinions of a patient, caregiver, and physician. Suggestions for navigating disagreement and implementing courses of action are discussed.