Obesity in a life-course perspective: an exploration of lay explanations of weight gain

The present study investigated the way in which people who had experienced medically defined obesity understood and explained the causes of the weight gains they had experienced during their life course and related such explanations to gender and social background.

The study was a qualitative in-depth interview study of 20 Danish middle-aged women and men with high and low levels of education who had experienced obesity.

Women mainly related weight gain to life-course transitions associated with the female biological lifecycle; to changes in social relations; or to personal problems connected with close social relationships and to side-effects of psycho-pharmaceuticals. Women with high levels of education tended more often to explain weight gain within a depth-psychological framework. Men related weight gain mainly to life-course transitions involving changing obligations connected with education, work, and family life; to periods of injury (sports or other) involving reduced levels of physical activity; and to personal problems connected with their work situation or financial troubles. Men with low levels of education tended to link weight gain directly to work environments, which were considered especially likely to lead to weight gain.

The study highlights marked differences in the way individuals explain their own weight gain. These differences relate to gender and, to some degree, social background. The findings may both inform and challenge public health promotion.