Food, class, and health: the role of the perceived body in the social reproduction of health.
Abstract
The association between social class and cardiovascular health is complex, involving
a constant interplay of factors as individuals integrate external information from
the media, health care providers, and people they know with personal experience to
produce health behaviors. This ethnographic study took place from February 2008 to
February 2009 to assess how cardiovascular health information circulating in Kansas
City influenced a sample of 55 women in the area. Participants were primarily Caucasian
(n = 41) but diverse in terms of age, income, and education. Themes identified in
transcripts showed women shared the same idea of an ideal body, young and thin, and
associated this perception with ideas about good health, intelligence, and morality.
Transcript themes corresponded to those found at health events and in the media that
emphasized individual control over determinants of disease. Women's physical appearance
and health behaviors corresponded to class indicators. Four categories were identified
to represent women's shared beliefs and practices in relation to class, cardiovascular
disease, and obesity. Findings were placed within an existing body of social theory
to better understand how cardiovascular health information and women's associated
beliefs relate to health inequality.
Type
Journal articleSubject
HumansCardiovascular Diseases
Diet
Stress, Psychological
Health Behavior
Life Style
Perception
Health Status
Social Class
Socioeconomic Factors
Mass Media
Adult
Aged
Middle Aged
Female
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20356Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1080/10410236.2012.688009Publication Info
Chapman, Shawna L Carroll; & Wu, Li-Tzy (2013). Food, class, and health: the role of the perceived body in the social reproduction
of health. Health communication, 28(4). pp. 341-350. 10.1080/10410236.2012.688009. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20356.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Li-Tzy Wu
Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Education/Training: Pre- and post-doctoral training in mental health service research,
psychiatric epidemiology (NIMH T32), and addiction epidemiology (NIDA T32) from Johns
Hopkins University School of Public Health (Maryland); Fellow of the NIH Summer Institute
on the Design and Conduct of Randomized Clinical Trials.Director: Duke Community Based
Substance Use Disorder Research Program.Research interests: COVID-19, Opioid misuse,
Opioid overdose, Opioid use disorder

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