• William C Cockerham.
• Department of Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; Division of Preventive Medicine, Heersink School of Medicine, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; Department of Sociology, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. Electronic address: wcocker@uab.edu.
• Am J Prev Med. 2022 Jul 1; 63 (1 Suppl 1): S8-S17.

AbstractThis article reviews selected theoretical approaches explaining the social determinants of obesity. The significance of this topic for medicine, public health, and other areas of obesity-related research is the growing body of evidence showing that the social environment is often key to understanding the risk of obesity. A review of relevant literature and analysis of empirical evidence linking theory to data in studies of obesity was performed. Several studies show that differences in social behavior and living conditions associated with SES, lifestyles, inequality, and other social variables have important roles in weight gain. Because the social determinants of obesity often begin in childhood, life course theory and its concepts of cumulative advantage/disadvantage and cumulative inequality are initially reviewed, followed by a discussion of how fundamental cause theory, health lifestyle theory, and cultural capital theory can be applied to obesity research. The stress process model and the concepts of social networks and neighborhood disadvantage concerning obesity are also included.Copyright © 2022 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

8 keywords...

hide…