Sick but healthy

Bariatric Patients and the Social Construction of Illness and Disability

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2249706
AutoresCorey Stevens (0000-0002-8083-0922, Department of Sociology Southern Illinois University Edwardsville IL USA, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen42
Número4
Páginas907-924
Fecha de publicación2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9566.13074
PMID32157704
OpenAlexW3011656158
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas46

Bariatric (weight loss) surgery modifies the digestive system, which produces impairments and symptoms which might be considered illness or disability. Bariatric patients, however, do not view themselves as ill or disabled, but healthier than before surgery. For this study, 35 bariatric patients - from a clinic located in the Midwestern United States - were interviewed to investigate how moral and medical discourses surrounding obesity impact how patients experience their bodies after bariatric surgery. While previous literature on bariatric patients has explored discourses of medicine, stigma and discipline, fewer have analysed how patients interpret physiological symptoms. Patients often reduce or discontinue medications for chronic illness after bariatric surgery, then replace them with a strict regimen of dietary supplements. Even though these supplements are taken to manage an impaired digestive system, they do not carry the same moral weight as medications for chronic illness. Patients also experience painful and humiliating symptoms after bariatric surgery. Bariatric patients interpret symptoms not as illness, but as important disciplinary tools to lose weight. These findings have implications for the social construction and experience of illness and disability in the context of fat stigma, health morality and biomedicalisation

Context (archaeology) · Obesity · Psychiatry · Regimen · Stigma (botany) · Weight loss · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Eating Disorders and Behaviors · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Obesity and Health Practices · Surgery