Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the individual’s and provider’s views on the responsibilisation of obesity in an effort to open dialogue on the presumed roles of each player. It will do this by taking as an example ethnographic fieldwork on dietary advice given in community dental practices.

Paper long abstract:

Public health is under tremendous pressure to stem the growing tide of obesity, yet primary care and public health efforts are not proving to be entirely successful. The ubiquitously applied health belief model expects the individual to take on an increasing level of responsibility (and arguably blame) for their own health, and the current rally of the neoliberalist agenda fuelled by the global economic crisis further impacts this deference of responsibility onto the individual.

But who is responsible for lifestyle modification, and if it is a shared one, what are the respective roles? Evidence indicates a wide disconnect between what the individual expects from primary care and public health providers and feels able to do on their own versus what providers believe their roles to be. Biocultural methodology of anthropology allows us to gain insight from individual and community perspectives to inform primary care and public health decision making.

This paper will explore the individual's and provider's views on the responsibilisation of obesity in an effort to open dialogue on the presumed roles of each player, and to begin the process of the development of a consensus of roles to provide an evidence base for effective primary care and public health commissioning. It will do this by taking as an example ethnographic fieldwork on dietary advice given in community dental practices in the north east of England.