Since Sam has covered obesity very well, I thought I'd go more general and focus on stigma.
Much research has already been done into society's response towards mental health especially, and that stigma can have adverse effects on a person's well-being. It has been found that underrecognition does occur when it comes to identifying stigma, and pieces of research on the topic are usually restricted to one circumstance (mental illness, AIDS, obesity etc), and measure one outcome (earnings, social inclusion, self esteem).
Research should ideally be done to produce a scale and categorise all chronic conditions based on how much stigma they receive. By using a mix of qualitative and quantitative data collection, it could be determined if the problem is widespread, and in what scenarios, thereby identifying where possible future action can be targeted.
The interview would happen before/after GP appointments, with the option to follow them up to see if perceptions of stigma have changed with time. Ideally, access to information of the patient's demographics through GP records would allow analysis of variations in age and gender etc.
Much of the interview will be driven by the responses to the previous questions, so if the patient does not believe there is stigma, there may not be much need to ask further questions.
Objective: To provide a clearer understanding of how widespread stigma is in society, producing a quantifiable scale based on chronic disease suffered, and effect it has on personal life.
Research question: Which chronic diseases receive the most stigma?
Questions:
- What condition/s are you suffering from? How long have you had this for?
- Do you feel society treats you differently because of your condition? [Scale from 'very well' to 'very badly']
- Has this had an effect on how you carry out your daily life activities? If so, how much? [scale]
-Could you describe any specific cases of when you were discriminated against because of your condition? Where did it happen? [etc.]
- Do you think your family has been affected by how you have been treated by society?
- Have you experienced any discrimination by health workers because of your condition? [scale and description of events]
- How much do you think society can change its perspective towards your condition? [scale, but probably may be influenced by patient's mood/personality]
- Can you think of anything that would change society's perspective towards your condition?