Provide an example: choose a disease/health condition and analyse it from the social model perspective (use journal articles). Provide relevant data/stats in relation to your chosen disease. [E.g. we discussed in class the social model applied to dementia care (W3) and bipolar disorders (by incorporating lay perspectives W5). Other conditions can include disabilities, mental health, end of life care, obesity].

I am going to talk about obesity, in the social model perspective about that issue. Adults are classed as overweight if their BMI is 25 to less than 30, obese if their BMI is 30 to less than 40 and morbidly obese if their BMI is 40 or more.Obesity can reduce people's overall quality of life. It creates a rinsing on health services and leads to premature death due to its association with serious chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidaemia, which are all major risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The two major lifestyle factors, associated with the growth of obesity, are physical inactivity and poor diet as well life choice (Obesity Indicators, 2015).

According to WHO data, worldwide, more than 1·9 billion adults are overweight. Obesity is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and several cancers. As Sir Michael Marmot has said: “if you want to tackle obesity, and then tackle the social determinants of obesity. Tackle inequality”. The time to address the social determinants of health is now. It is time for a conscious attack on commercial interests and a radical rethinking of the dominant economic and political models, which have too little interest in equity or social justice. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over one billion adults around the globe are overweight and about 700 million of those are considered to be obese.

Social economic, cultural, environmental conditions, living and working conditions have huge impacts on the individual health and wellbeing. In general, social and economic circumstances, which touch the quality of life and health of population, is called social determinant of health. I will discuss about obesity, because it has a huge impact on society and it leads to several illness such as cardiovascular disease, diabetic, stroke, depression and so on.

Overweight and obesity are responsible for about 9–12% of deaths in the older European Union (EU) Member States and 16–20% of deaths in the 12 Member States that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007. In addition the frequency of obesity in Europe is rising in many countries, and increasing fastest in low socioeconomic population groups. Has argue social model. (Obesity and inequities Guidance for addressing inequities in overweight and obesity Written by: Belinda Loring Aileen Robertso WHO,2014).

Inequities in health are caused by the unequal distribution of these determinants of health, including power, income, goods and services, poor and unequal living conditions, and the differences in health-damaging behaviours that these wider determinants produce. (WHO,2014).

Also, the women are at increased risk of obesity due to their residence in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods. (: Ball, K; Abbott, G; Cleland, V; Timperio, A; Thornton, L; Mishra, G; Jeffery, R W; Brug, J; King, A; Crawford, D. International Journal of Obesity. Jun2012, Vol. 36 Issue 6, p855-865.)

Evidence shows that, the highest rates of obesity are among population groups with the highest poverty rates and the least education. In addition to this, communities with low socioeconomic status (SES) and high poverty are also associated with low levels of physical activity settings and they are at risk of being overweight. (Amarasinghe, Anura; D'Souza, Gerard. ISRN Public Health. 2012, p1-10. 10.Individual, Social, Economic, and Environmental Model: A Paradigm Shift for Obesity Prevention).