Understanding Obesity through Sociology

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Understanding Obesity through Sociology

• Dr Abir Youssef

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Understanding Obesity through Sociology

• Introduction
• World Health Organization (WHO) definitions for
  obesity
• Causes of obesity
• Socio-economic Environmental Explanation
• Cultural behavioral Explanation
• Ethnicity and Obesity
• Tackling Obesity
• Conclusions

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Introduction

• Obesity is a major public health problem across
  the world.
• Obesity results from excessive caloric intake,
  decreased energy expenditure and/or from a
  combination of the two.

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World Health Organization (WHO) definitions for
obesity

• BMI Weight kg/Height m²
• Underweight lt18.5 BMI
• Healthy weight 18.5-24.9 BMI
• Overweight (Grade I obesity) 25.0-29.9 BMI
• Obese (Grade II obesity) 30.0-39.9 BMI
• Morbidly obese (Grade III obesity) 40 or above
  BMI

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Causes of obesity

• The etiology of obesity includes both genetic
  and environmental factors

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The followings are the main factors

• Environmental factors related to lifestyle and
  cultural or socio-economic conditions
• Psychological factors
• Metabolic factors
• May also be induced by drugs (high dose
  glucocorticoid)
• Secondary to a variety of neuroendocrine disorders

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Socio-economic Environmental Explanation

• Obesity is strongly influenced by
  environmental factors, such as , poverty, housing
  condition, and work situation.

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Housing conditions

• There is clear recognition of the association
  between poor housing and poor physical and mental
  health

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Income

• Obesity is strongly linked to poverty.
• Poorer diets among poorer groups can be explained
  by the lack of opportunities, stress, and level
  of knowledge.

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Income

• Poverty and overcrowding can inhibit parental
  supervision of children and negatively affect
  their health in general and increase obesity.
• Unhealthy fast food is both available and
  affordable.

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Work situation

• Work allows for the financing of household
  necessities and leisure pursuits and provides
  status and self-esteem for the individual.
• There is a decrease in energy consumption at
  work, as most of our jobs now require much less
  physical effort, compared with 1970.

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Work situation

• Travel to work by cars and/or other modern
  public transport
• Calorie intake and the ambient temperature at
  home and at the workplace have increased.

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Cultural behavioral Explanation

• The Cultural behavioral explanation of health
  inequalities point out class difference in
• beliefs about health
• health behaviour
• life-style

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Lack of public information

• Some people can not judge which products are high
  in fat and by how much.
• Food manufacturers display macronutrients in
  grams, when the correct way would be to express
  their contribution in energy.

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Lack of public information

• Advertising gives children confused messages
  about nutrition, and can change their food
  preferences and buying behaviour.
• Subsidies of agricultural products play an
  important part, as children as well as adults,
  are influenced by cheap prices.

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Ethnicity and Obesity

• Psychosocial factors associated with the
  incidence of obesity in ethnic minorities include
  
• inadequate social support
• cultural barriers to communication
• racism and discrimination
• stress and lack of knowledge
• language difficulties to understand the health
  promotion message.

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Tackling Obesity on different levels

• individuals
• community
• local government
• national levels

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Tackling Obesity

• Society-wide Approach
• The WHOs 1997 interim report argues that it is
  not enough to tackle obesity at individual level
  and that a society-wide public health approach
  needs to be employed.
• Medical profession
• Government should work with the food industry to
  promote a healthier diet for everyone from
  childhood to adult life.
• Management of obesity in Primary Care by a
  motivated well-informed multi-disciplinary team
  could achieve and maintain weight loss by
  promoting sustainable changes in lifestyle.

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Tackling Obesity

• The government should work to reduce health
  inequality and improve the environment factor.
• Controlling safety and making the streets safe
  for walking or cycling.
• Promoting and improving access to sport and
  leisure facilities.
• Education programmes for all, advertising to
  promote healthy lifestyles and highlight the
  risks associated with obesity.

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Tackling Obesity

• Individual parents of overweight children should
  be helped to take responsibility and encourage
  healthy eating and physical activity.

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Conclusions

• Obesity is not a disease, it is a public health
  problem and it is a risk factor for several
  chronic diseases.
• Understanding environmental factors can
  contribute to a better understanding of the
  nature of obesity as well as contribute to
  tackling it.