Sociological Perspective: Differences Between Obesity And Illness

This essay will briefly discuss the sociological perspective and its difference from the biomedical perspective. I will also discuss the differences between the terms “illness” and “disease”. These different ideas will be illustrated in the case of obesity. I will apply these concepts to support my belief that obesity is both a disease and an illness. The biomedical perspective is comprised of Western ideas based on historical assumptions about the body and ways of knowing about the body (Freund et al., 6). In that sense, it assumes mind-body dualism by separating physical diseases in the body from an individual’s mind or spirit (Freund et al., 6). This separation of the mental and physical state often has medicine prioritize the physical
being and overlooking the social conditions that could influence the mental state. On the other hand, the sociological perspective focuses on social patterns instead of individual behaviors (Weitz, 5). Another way of examining issues with this perspective was to treat the problem as public issues and not a personal problem between only a select few of individuals. One of the benefits to the sociological perspective is that it enables identification of critical research questions that would otherwise never be ventured on (Weitz, 6). Doing so allows an exploration of the organization societies, beyond the biological and psychological characteristics of one particular individual (Tausig and Michello, 4). Pushing beyond the perspectives brings up the discussion of what illness and disease are in comparison to each other. Disease is a concept that addresses the biological problem within an organism’s body while illness looks at the social experiences and consequences of having a disease (Weitz, 18).
Extending from the previous conversation between the perspectives, disease would be more adept for a biomedical view whereas illness is applicable in a social perspective. While these two concepts examine different aspects of a person’s condition, they can be seen as two sides of the same coin because of focusing on the same condition but in a different angle. This situation can be applicable to obesity where there are both social and physical traits that can facilitate the
other. With obesity, the physical concerns are the risk of cardiovascular disease, strokes, certain cancers, diabetes, and additional health problems (Weitz, 33). The causal mechanisms are often traced through a high-fat diet and sedentary lifestyle. The biological explanation for why obesity occurs in the population can also be traced back to human ancestors. Humans are theorized to have a natural, biological craving for sweet and fatty foods as a survival mechanism during periods where food was scarce (Weitz, 35). While scarcity has decreased in the general population, the human body still maintains the innate mechanism of preservation. This becomes problematic with the development of less active lifestyle in most developed countries and the abundance of foods in general coupled with fatty fast foods. While these inner workings take place for obesity as its disease component, obesity as an illness can also subtly occur at any point in time. Obesity as an illness can work in unison or around the disease component due to the various social factors incorporated with it.
From self-perception to societal organization, an individual can experience obesity outside of its physical realm. Some of the detrimental experiences an obese individual faces are stigma, difficulty in enjoying social things in life, and socioeconomic concerns. Weitz discusses how negative assumptions are imposed on obese individuals such as lazy or unintelligent with social troubles in job promotions and intimate relationships (Weitz, 33). The stresses imposed from these incidents can propel the cycle forward if the individual sought comfort in unhealthy food choices. Additionally, obesity as a disease fails to look at the societal distribution, where healthier food options may be inaccessible for individuals in low-income households. Food choices themselves have also been subjected to corporate influence with fatty and high sugar goods often being marketed to children or commercialized at lower prices than healthier alternatives. These examples exhibit how disease and illness can work in tandem in the case of obesity by addressing different aspects of the condition the other concept falls short of caputring. To conclude, I discussed why I consider obesity as a disease and illness with supporting evidence in reference to the sociological and biomedical perspectives. The differences between the sociological and biomedical perspectives provided a
clear illustration of the separation between the concepts of illness and disease. The disease of obesity explained the physical dimensions of this problem, whereas the illness side examined the social facets that could further perpetuate this condition.