Obesity Model Vs Social Model

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Disease is the disruption of bodily functioning with known pathogenic agent. Disease is context dependent on the medical model. For example, sleep disorder is identified as a disease that is inhibiting you from resting that can have serious implications on one’s health. Obesity can also be viewed as a disease according to the medical model because it deviates from a normal weight or BMI. The medical model defines obesity as an abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health (WHO). It calls for an intervention within the obese individual to change their weight in order to avoid health implications such as heart disease. When physicians typically label a patient as obese, they are giving a prognosis that this patient may have a later disease such as cardiovascular disease associated with their weight. …show more content…

Sickness refers to the social model and focuses on how a society perceives a disease. The social model defines obesity as the bodily differences that are misfit with one’s environment. This is exemplified with Western society and its perception of fat people. Obese people are stigmatized and often, ridiculed as unhealthy over-consumers who are to blame for being the cause of their