Paper short abstract:

An ongoing research about food insecurity and daily life precarization in Spain has focused on medical intervention. Recent increase of social inequalities brought up some limitations on diet and food consumption prescriptions for the overweighed population, mostly belonging to the lower class.

Paper long abstract:

The data obtained in our research on precariousness, food and health point out the link between precariousness and obesity. A significant percentage of people who suffer from precariousness are overweight or obese (49.2% of the unemployed population was overweight in 2014, according to the Catalan Health Survey).

Focusing on health professionals' perspective, we have noted that their intervention about food is based on advices about healthy diet, physical activity, and daily life practices. Even if most interviewed nurses and doctors from public health centres are aware of social and economic situation of their patients, they identify limitations in approaching social inequalities affecting health. On the other hand, some patients complained about being enable to carry on with their medical prescriptions about diet, food consumption and physical activity because of their social and economic situation (low income, precarious work, family responsibilities). All these aspects indirectly affect the quality and success of health intervention aimed to reduce overweight, in a context where food insecurity is mostly suffered by lower class people.