ArticleHealth care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy2016
Obesity as a Socially Defined Disease: Philosophical Considerations and Implications for Policy and Care.
Article in Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- On the Concept of Existential Disease.Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2026Article
- Comparative Analysis of Food Addiction and Obesity: A Critical Review.Food science & nutrition · 2025Review
- Obesity Stigma: Causes, Consequences, and Potential Solutions.Current obesity reports · 2023Review
- Managing the moral expansion of medicine.BMC medical ethics · 2022Article
- Avoiding hypersensitive reluctance to address parental responsibility in childhood obesity.Journal of medical ethics · 2022Article
- The role of philosophy and ethics at the edges of medicine.Philosophy, ethics, and humanities in medicine : PEHM · 2021Article
- "You Are Always at War With Yourself" The Perceptions and Beliefs of People With Obesity Regarding Obesity as a Disease.Qualitative health research · 2021Article
- Living with obesity - existential experiences.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2019Article
- Illness and disease: an empirical-ethical viewpoint.BMC medical ethics · 2019Article
- Evaluating facts and facting evaluations: On the fact-value relationship in HTA.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2018Article
- Should Europe follow the US and declare obesity a disease?: a discussion of the so-called utilitarian argument.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2017Review
- Medicalization and overdiagnosis: different but alike.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2016Article
- Body image in older women: a mediator of BMI and wellness behaviors.Journal of women & agingArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Obesity has generated significant worries amongst health policy makers and has obtained increased attention in health care. Obesity is unanimously defined as a disease in the health care and health policy literature. However, there are pragmatic and not principled reasons for this. This warrants an analysis of obesity according to standard conceptions of disease in the literature of philosophy of medicine. According to theories and definitions of disease referring to (abnormal functioning of) internal processes, obesity is not a disease. Obesity undoubtedly can result in disease, making it a risk factor for disease, but not a disease per se. According to several social conceptions of disease, however, obesity clearly is a disease. Obesity can conflict with aesthetic, moral, or other social norms. Making obesity a "social disease" may very well be a wise health policy, assuring and improving population health, especially if we address the social determinants of obesity, such as the food supply and marketing system. However, applying biomedical solutions to social problems may also have severe side effects. It can result in medicalization and enhance stigmatization and discrimination of persons based on appearance or behavior. Approaching social problems with biomedical means may also serve commercial and professionals' interests more than the health and welfare of individuals; it may make quick fix medical solutions halt more sustainable structural solutions. This urges health insurers, health care professionals, and health policy makers to be cautious. Especially if we want to help and respect persons that we classify and treat as obese.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.