Cute Kid? Patient Obesity Status and the Use of Nonmedical Descriptors in Presentations by Pediatric Residents

Nonmedical descriptors, adjectives that are not related to a medical condition, such as “cute,” are often used in presentations in pediatrics. We hypothesize that patterns of their use may reflect obesity bias. Descriptors used by pediatric residents presenting cases of children <9 years in an outpatient clinic during the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 academic years were recorded. The primary outcome was the association of the use of positive nonmedical descriptors with children's obesity status using logistic regression. Positive descriptors were used in 14% of 994 presentations. Most addressed the appearance of the child with variations of “cute” and “adorable.” There was no variation in use of positive descriptors by obesity status. On multivariate logistic regression, the odds of using positive descriptors were higher among female residents, and positive descriptor use declined with patient age. Negative descriptors were rare and often focused on weight.