Question
Do you suffer from any disease such as HIV?
27 May 2023. Related: All topics.
Hello, I just wanted your opinion really. I’ve just visited my dentist and filled in the appropriate forms re: medical conditions etc and one of the questions was ‘Do you suffer from any disease such as HIV’. I gave feedback to them that I didn’t think this wording was appropriate but I just wondered if you would be able to give me something more constructive to suggest as obviously the word ‘disease’ really doesn’t feel right and also the word ‘suffer’ seemed to be inappropriate too. I hope this doesn’t sound like a minor concern as I felt that the question reinforced the stigma that many of us have to endure when accessing healthcare services and disclosing our HIV status. The dentist was fine it’s just I think the wording on the form could be better! I would welcome any thoughts or suggestions. Thank you.
Answer
Hi, how are you doing?
You are very right that language used in this way does reinforce stigma. I am sorry to hear that this is the language that had been used in your dentists forms. Thank you for your willingness to challenge this.
Language that is not patient centred and calls back to older styles of communication around HIV is not a minor issue. It is a problem that requires addressing and it is importnat that these instances are challenged.
Using the word suffer carries a lot of weight when used in this context. It creates an image of someone who is HIV positive and is unable to live similar to their HIV peers. This is true for all conditions that this word is associated with e.g., suffer from diabetes or hypertension. In most cases using the term ‘live with’ removes the negative association from ‘suffer’. It will also remain more patient centred as it highlights living as opposed to suffering.
The word disease is often more difficult to suggest alternative words. This is largely due to the word being more technical. In this cases anything that is not ‘normal’ can be considered some form of disease. Though I do understand using the word disease does often carry the idea that the illness is active and is debilitating.
A suggestion could be to use the term ‘condition’. I recognise that this may not be the perfect word but it does remove the associated thoughts that occur with the word disease.
In this case instead of the form reading ‘do you suffer from any disease such as HIV’, an option would be to say ‘do you live with any long term condition such as HIV’. This statement being more person focussed and moving away from more negatively focused terms.
Josh.
“Do you have or have you ever had any of the following conditions/illnesses?”should be the question. My former, now retired Dentist was very understanding after I truthfully completed the questionnaire. It gave a list of common ailments then a space to give details of anything that didn’t fit with the above. I said I was HIV+. He thanked me for my honesty saying many people wouldn’t‘ve have revealed their status at all.
I do agree that the wording on your form should definitely be changed. HIV is thankfully
something that most of us live with now, rather than suffer from.
Keep safe everyone
Hi Anonymous, yes this is also an option. Often when specific conditions are asked an entire list will be needed e.g., HIV, diabetes, hypertension…Using a phrase that is a catch all term will be less specific. There are pros and cons to both.
Interesting, could they not just ask “Are you hiv positive?”, as they do elsewhere?