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- Title
Empowering People to Make Healthier Choices: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Tackling Obesity Policy.
- Authors
Brookes, Gavin
- Abstract
In response to the heightened risk that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses to the health and lives of people with obesity, in 2020 the U.K. government launched a new package of policies intended to stimulate weight loss among the country's population. In this article, I present a critical discourse analysis of the policy paper which announced these new measures. I identify the discourses that are used to represent things, people, and processes in this policy text. These discourses are interpreted in terms of broadly neoliberal ideologies of public health management. Taken together, the discourses identified contribute to a broadly neoliberal ideology of public health management. It is argued that the policy paper represents an instance of "lifestyle drift," as it initially appears to engage with social and economic determinants of health but ultimately neglects these in favor of focusing on individual lifestyle factors, particularly in the shape of individuals' "choices."
- Subjects
UNITED Kingdom; OBESITY complications; OBESITY treatment; HEALTH policy; RESEARCH; CARDIOVASCULAR diseases risk factors; COVID-19; SOCIAL determinants of health; FOOD labeling; MEDICINE information services; PUBLIC health; POLICY science research; RISK assessment; SELF-efficacy; QUALITATIVE research; NATIONAL health services; TYPE 2 diabetes; FOOD preferences; HEALTH information services; WEIGHT loss; DISCOURSE analysis; HEALTH behavior; NATURAL foods; HEALTH promotion; BEHAVIOR modification
- Publication
Qualitative Health Research, 2021, Vol 31, Issue 12, p2211
- ISSN
1049-7323
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/10497323211027536