Vad är problemet med barnfetma? En diskursiv policyanalys av barnfetma och jämlik hälsa

Sammanfattning: This thesis asks how childhood obesity is understood as a problem and how it relates to health equality. It aims to show how knowledge production and power is prevalent in policy and its impact on individuals and society. Using a post structural approach and discourse analysis two documents, one on a county and one on a national level, are analyzed. The analysis shows that childhood obesity discourses center around the family’s own responsibility to insure a healthy lifestyle with support from public health care and the school. Weight is seen as a measurement for how healthy a person is and obesity is represented as a problem of the future as it is a sign for illnesses to come. The relationship between obesity and health seems clear, yet the Council’s policy on obesity is not concerned with health inequalities. In contrast, the national report regarding health equality does not emphasize obesity; instead it focuses on societal inequalities like the labor market, housing and political influence as an avenue for decreasing the health gap. Thus, there is a discrepancy between the emphasis on society’s responsibility as opposed to the individual’s role in childhood obesity. A future challenge is bridging this gap.