Background: Worldwide the prevalence of obesity is growing corresponding to an epidemic which can have consequences for both society and individuals including cardiovascular and respiratory problems, multiple type of cancers and greater risk of depression. Furthermore, the social inequality in obesity is growing in Denmark despite that the discourse from the national health policy has aimed to reduce this since the 1970´s. Thus, the current discourse in health policy can be problematized in terms of either reducing or increasing the social inequality of obesity in Denmark.
Purpose: The purpose of this graduate thesis is to produce a change proposal which can aim to reduce the social inequality of obesity. This change proposal was grounded in a thematic discourse analysis of several health policy documents with the aim to identify which discourses is representative in Danish health policy and which possible changes could be made to the discourses.
Methods: A thematic discourse analysis was used to identify constitutional discourse over several health policy documents. This analysis was grounded in the critical discourse theory as presented by Fairclough. The aforementioned documents were selected from several criteria including the authors authority, the availability of the document and cross references used. Furthermore, a systematic literature search was used to explore the international research literature in terms of health policy discourses associated with obesity.
Results: Six discourses were identified with the thematic discourse analysis which was named individual, normality and lifestyle, biomedicine, paternalism, biopsychosocial and evidence. The biomedicinal and individual discourse was found to be the most prominent and the foundation for the liberal discourse in health policy. Furthermore, four studies were identified by the literature study which was used to discuss and support the findings from the analysis.
Conclusion: The chance proposal revolves around how the liberal discourse can be reframed with a more socialist-oriented discourse which in turn can help change the fundamental perception of inequality in obesity within health policy. The liberal discourse can be reframed with the socialist oriented discourse with the use of life conditions and lifestyle choices which can create a wider perception of the social inequality in obesity in health policy.