Sick but healthy: bariatric patients and the social construction of illness and disability

Abstract

Bariatric (weight loss) surgery modifies the digestive system, which produces impairments and symptoms which might be considered illness or disability. Bariatric patients, however, do not view themselves as ill or disabled, but healthier than before surgery. For this study, 35 bariatric patientsfrom a clinic located in the Midwestern United Stateswere interviewed to investigate how moral and medical discourses surrounding obesity impact how patients experience their bodies after bariatric surgery. While previous literature on bariatric patients has explored discourses of medicine, stigma and discipline, fewer have analysed how patients interpret physiological symptoms. Patients often reduce or discontinue medications for chronic illness after bariatric surgery, then replace them with a strict regimen of dietary supplements. Even though these supplements are taken to manage an impaired digestive system, they do not carry the same moral weight as medications for chronic illness. Patients also experience painful and humiliating symptoms after bariatric surgery. Bariatric patients interpret symptoms not as illness, but as important disciplinary tools to lose weight. These findings have implications for the social construction and experience of illness and disability in the context of fat stigma, health morality and biomedicalisation.

Weight stigma after bariatric surgery: A qualitative study with Brazilian women

“…Stevens [ 65 ] points out that the symbolic “fat” body, which was viewed as “out of control” before bariatric surgery, ideally becomes a slimmer and more disciplined body afterwards. This transformation is understood to be ensured by strict adherence to a particular lifestyle and to disciplinary tools (e.g., physiological limitations and dietary restrictions) that distanced people from the formerly higher-weight, stigmatized body.…”

Supply Analysis of Supplementary Products in Poland

“…On the other hand, the issue of managing supplementary products is referred to as marginally. Few related publications especially concern the following fields: economy (Freijer et al, 2019;Royne et al, 2014;Mason et al, 2011;France and Bone, 2005), business (Cong et al, 2020;Mason and Scammon, 2011;Bolton et al, 2008), sociology (Stevens et al, 2020;Smith et al, 2010;Addis et al, 2005), management (Toukabri et al, 2019;Ozcan and Gurses, 2018;Smaiziene and Vaitkiene, 2014), ethics (Outram and Stewart, 2015;Slashinski et al, 2012;Ling, 2004) or business finance (Cleff et al, 2018).…”