An academic treated for arthritis since childhood has called on doctors to be aware of the messages they convey to their youngest patients, who absorb the lessons, some beautiful, others harmful.

In an opinion piece in JAMA Pediatrics, Dr Amy Robertson (PhD), 32, writes that having had arthritis since she was two, she’s internalised pervasive messages she received about her body from medical professionals.

“Some of these messages are beautiful, communicating a belief in the complexity and capacity of the body-homes we inhabit,” she writes.

“Some of them I experienced as harmful, and that is the focus of this article.”